T.TBR  A^R  Y 

T  h  eo 

logical    Sem  inany  ,  ' 

PRINCETON.,  N.    J.                             : 

(  '(IMC 

'  Division.'£)S.>Q-.Ll-..     ! 

ShvJf 

Section*A^S'(^ 1 

Booh 

No._; r 

LITERATURE     &     DOGMA 


O  gnam  magna  midtitudo  dtilcedhiis  Ttice,  Dotnute,  quam  ahscotidisti 
tiimtiiibus  Tel'  Ps.  xxx.,  20. 

La  tendance  a  Vordre  ne  pejfit-elle  /aire  7ine  partie  essentielle  de  nos 
inclinations,  de  notre  ifistinct,  comme  la  tendance  a  la  conservation,  a  la 
reproduction  ? '  Senancour. 

'And     as    it    is    owned    the    whole   scheme     of    Scripture    is     not    yet 

understood,  so,  if  it  ever  comes  to   be   understood,  it    must   be   in   the   same 

way  as  natural   knowledge   is  come  at :  by  the  continuance  and   progress  of 

learning  and  of  liberty,  and  by  particular  persons  attending  to,   comparing 

and  pursuing  intimations  scattered  up   and  down  it,   which  are    overlooked 

and  disregarded  by  the  generality  of  the  world.     Nor  is  it  at  all  incredible 

that  a  book    which  has  been  so   long  in   the  possession  of  mankind,  should 

contain  many  truths  as  yet  undiscovered.     For  all   the  same  phenomena  and 

the    same    faculties    of  investigation,    from  which   such  great    discoveries   in 

natural  knowledge  have  been  made  in  the  present  and  last  age,  were  equally 

in  the  possession  of  mankind  several  thousand  years  before.' 

Butler. 


LITERATURE   &   DOGMA 

AN    ESSAY 
TOWARDS    A     BETTER    APPREHENSION    OF    THE    BIBLE 


BY 

MATTHEW  ARNOLD, 

FORMERLV      PROFESSOR      OF      POETRY      IN      THE      UNIVERSITY      OF      OXFORD 
AND      FELLOW      OF      ORIEL      COLLEGE 


FOURTH  EDITION 


NEW    YORK 
MACMILLAN      AND      CO. 
1874 


PREFACE. 


An  inevitable  revolution,  of  which  we  all  recognise  the 
beginnings  and  signs,  but  which  has  already  spread,  per- 
haps, farther  than  most  of  us  think,  is  befaUing  the  religion 
in  which  we  have  been  brought  up.  In  those  countries 
where  religion  has  been  most  loved,  this  revolution  will 
be  felt  the  most  keenly ;  felt  through  all  its  stages  and  in 
all  its  incidents.  In  no  country  will  it  be  more  felt  than 
in  England.  This  cannot  be  otherwise ;  it  cannot  be  but 
that  the  revolution  should  come,  and  that  it  should  be 
here  felt  passionately,  profoundly,  painfully ;  but  no  one 
is  on  that  account  in  the  least  dispensed  from  the  utmost 
duty  of  considerateness  and  caution.  There  is  no  surer 
proof  of  a  narrow  and  ill-instructed  mind,  than  to  think 
and  uphold  that  what  a  man  takes  to  be  the  truth  on 
religious  matters  is  always  to  be  proclaimed.  Our  truth 
on  these  matters,  and   likewise  the    error  of  others,  is 


PREFACE. 


something  so  relative,  that  the  good  or  harm  hkely  to  be 
done  by  speaking  ought  ahvays  to  be  taken  into  account. 
'  I  keep  silence  at  many  things/  says  Goethe,  '  for  I 
would  not  mislead  men,  and  am  well  content  if  others 
can  find  satisfaction  in  what  gives  me  offence.'  The  man 
who  believes  that  his  truth  on  religious  matters  is  so  abso- 
lutely the  truth,  that  say  it  when,  and  where,  and  to  whom 
he  will,  he  cannot  but  do  good  with  it,  is  in  our  day 
almost  ahvays  a  man  whose  truth  is  half  blunder,  and 
wholly  useless. 

To  be  convinced,  therefore,  that  our  current  theology 
is  false,  is  not  necessarily  a  reason  for  pubHshing  that 
conviction.  The  theology  may  be  false,  and  yet  one  may 
do  more  harm  in  attacking  it  than  by  keeping  silence  and 
waiting.  To  judge  rightly  the  time  and  its  conditions  is 
the  great  thing ;  there  is  a  time,  as  the  Preacher  says, 
to  speak,  and  a  time  to  keep  silence.  If  the  present 
time  is  a  time  to  speak,  there  must  be  a  reason  why  it 
is  so. 

And  there  is  a  reason ;  and  it  is  this.  Clergymen  and 
ministers  of  religion  are  full  of  lamentations  over  what 
they  call  the  spread  of  scepticism,  and  because  of  the  little 
hold  which  religion  now  has  on  the  masses  of  the  people, 
— the  lapsed  masses^  as  some  ^mters  call  them.    Practical 


PREFACE. 


hold  on  them  it  never,  perhaps,  had  very  much,  but  they 
did  not  question  its  truth,  and  they  held  it  in  consider- 
able awe ;  as  the  best  of  them  raised  themselves  up  out 
of  a  merely  animal  life,  religion  attracted  and  engaged 
them.  But  now  they  seem  to  have  hardly  any  awe  of  it 
at  all,  and  they  freely  question  its  truth  ;  and  many  of 
the  most  successful,  energetic,  and  ingenious  of  the  artisan 
class,  who  are  steady  and  rise,  are  now  found  either  of 
themselves  rejecting  the  Bible  altogether,  or  following 
teachers  Avho  tell  them  the  Bible  is  an  exploded  super- 
stition. Let  me  quote  from  the  letter  of  a  working- 
man, — a  man,  himself,  of  no  common  intelligence  and 
temper, — a  passage  that  sets  this  forth  very  clearly. 
'  Despite  the  efforts  of  the  churches,'  he  says,  '  the 
speculations  of  the  day  are  working  their  way  down 
among  the  people,  many  of  whom  are  asking  for  the 
reason  and  authority  for  the  things  they  have  been 
taught  to  believe.  Questions  of  this  kind,  too,  mostly 
reach  them  through  doubtful  channels;  and  owing  to 
this,  and  to  their  lack  of  culture,  a  discovery  of  im- 
perfection and  fallibility  in  the  Bible  leads  to  its 
contemptuous  rejection  as  a  great  priestly  imposture. 
And  thus  those  among  the  working  class  who  eschew  the 
teachinsrs  of  the  orthodox,  sHde  off  towards,  not  the  late 


PREFACE. 


Mr.    Maurice,  nor   yet   Professor   Huxley,   but  towards 
Mr.  Bradlaugh.' 

Despite  the  efforts  of  the  churches,  the  writer  tells  us,  this 
contemptuous  rejection  of  the  Bible  happens.  And  we 
regret  the  rejection  as  much  as  the  clergy  and  ministers 
,  of  religion  do.  There  may  be  others  who  do  not 
regret  it,  but  we  do  ;  all  that  the  churches  can  say  about 
the  importance  of  the  Bible  and  its  religion,  we  concur 
in.  And  it  is  the  religion  of  the  Bible  that  is  pro- 
fessedly in  question  with  all  the  churches,  when  they 
-L  talk  of  religion  and  lament  its  prospects.  With  Catholics 
as  well  as  Protestants,  and  with  all  the  sects  of  Pro- 
testantism, this  is  so;  and  from  the  nature  of  the  case 
it  must  be  so.  What  the  religion  of  the  Bible  is,  how 
1  it  is  to  be  got  at,  they  may  not  agree  ;  but  that  it  is 
'  the  religion  of  the  Bible  for  which  they  contend,  they 
all  aver.  'The  Bible,'  says  Dr.  Newman,  'is  the  re- 
cord of  the  whole  revealed  faith  ;  so  far  all  parties  agree.' 
Now,  this  religion  of  the  Bible  we  say  they  cannot  value 
more  than  we  do.  If  we  hesitate  to  adopt  strictly  their 
language  about  its  ^//-importance,  that  is  only  because  we 
take  an  uncommonly  large  view  of  human  perfection,  and 
say,  speaking  strictly,  that  there  go  to  this  certain  things, 
— art,  for  instance,  and  science, — which  the  Bible  hardly 


PREFACE. 


meddles  with.  The  difference  between  us  and  them, 
however,  is  more  a  difference  of  theoretical  statement 
than  of  practical  conclusion;  speaking  practically,  and 
looking  at  the  very  large  part  of  human  life  engaged  by 
the  Bible,  at  the  comparatively  small  part  unengaged 
by  it,  we  are  quite  willing,  like  the  churches,  to  call 
the  Bible  and  its  religion  (^//-important. 

All  this  agreement  there  is  both  in  words  and  in 
things,  between  us  and  the  churches.  And  yet,  when 
we  behold  the  clergy  and  ministers  of  religion  lament 
the  neglect  of  religion  and  aspire  to  restore  it,  how 
must  one  feel  that  to  restore  religion  as  they  under- 
stand it,  to  re-inthrone  the  Bible  as  explained  by  our  cur- 
rent theology,  whether  learned  or  popular,  is  absolutely 
and  for  ever  impossible  ! — as  impossible  as  to  restore  the 
predominance  of  the  feudal  system,  or  of  the  belief  in 
witches.  Let  us  admit  that  the  Bible  cannot  possibly 
die;  but  then  the  churches  cannot  even  conceive  the 
Bible  without  the  gloss  they  at  present  put  upon  it,  and 
this  gloss,  as  certainly,  cannot  possibly  live.  And  it  is 
not  a  gloss  which  one  church  or  sect  puts  upon  the 
Bible  and  another  does  not ;  it  is  the  gloss  they  all  put 
upon  it,  and  call  the  substratum  of  belief  common  to  all 
Christian  churches,  and  largely  shared  with  them,  even. 


PREFACE. 


by  natural  religion.  It  is  this  so-called  axiomatic  basis 
which  must  go,  and  it  supports  all  the  rest ;  and  if  the 
Bible  were  really  inseparable  from  this  and  depended 
upon  it,  then  Mr.  Bradlaugh  would  have  his  way  and  the 
Bible  would  go  too ;  for  this  basis  is  inevitably  doomed. 
For  whatever  is  to  stand  must  rest  upon  something 
which  is  verifiable,  not  un verifiable.  Now,  the  as- 
sumption with  which  all  the  churches  and  sects  set  out, 
that  there  is  '  a  great  Personal  First  Cause,  the  moral 
and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  and  that 
from  him  the  Bible  derives  its  authority,  can  never  be 
verified. 

Those  who  'ask  for  the  7'easoji  and  aidhority  for  the 
things  they  have  been  taught  to  believe,'  as  the  people, 
we  are  told,  are  now  doing,  will  begin  at  the  beginning. 
Rude  and  hard  reasoners  as  they  are,  they  will  never 
consent  to  admit,  as  a  self-evident  axiom,  the  preliminary 
assumption  with  which  the  churches  start.  But  this  pre- 
liminary assumption  governs  everything  which  in  our 
current  theology  follows  it  ;  and  it  is  certain,  therefore, 
that  the  people  will  not  receive  our  current  theology. 
So,  if  they  are  to  receive  the  Bible,  we  must  find  for  the 
Bible  some  other  basis  than  that  which  the  churches 
assign  to  it,  a  verifiable  basis  and  not  an  assumption ;  and 
this,   again,  will  govern   everything  which   comes  after. 


PREFACE. 


This  new  religion  of  the  Bible  the  people  may  receive  ; 
the  version  now  current  of  the  religion  of  the  Bible  they 
never  will  receive. 

Here,  then,  is  the  problem  :  to  find,  for  the  Bible,  a  ^ 
basis  in  something  which  can  be  verified,  instead  of  in 
something  which  has  to  be  assumed.  So  true  and  pro- 
phetic are  Vinet's  words  :  '  We  must'  he  said,  *  make  it 
our  business  to  bring  forward  the  rational  side  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  to  show  that  for  thinkers,  too,  it  has  a  right 
to  be  an  authority.'  Yes,  and  the  problem  we  have  stated 
must  be  the  first  stage  in  the  business;  with  this  unsolved, 
ail  other  religious  discussion  is  idle  trifling. 

This  is  why  Dissent,  as  a  religious  movement  of  our 
day,  would  be  almost  droll,  if  it  were  not,  from  the  tempers 
and  actions  it  excites,  so  extremely  irreligious.  But  what 
is  to  be  said  for  men,  aspiring  to  deal  with  the  cause  of 
religion,  who  either  cannot  see  that  what  the  people  now 
require  is  a  religion  of  the  Bible  quite  different  from  that 
which  any  of  the  churches  or  sects  supply ;  or  who,  seeing 
this,  spend  their  energies  in  fiercely  battling  as  to  whether 
the  Church  shall  be  connected  with  the  nation  in  its  col- 
lective and  corporate  character  or  no  ?  The  question,  at 
the  present  juncture,  is  in  itself  so  absolutely  unimportant ! 
The  thing  is,  to  recast  religion.  If  this  is  done,  the  new  re- 
ligion will  be  the  national  one ;  if  it  is  not  done,  separating 


PREFACE. 


the  nation  in  its  collective  and  corporate  character  from 
religion,  will  not  do  it.  It  is  as  if  men's  minds  were  much 
unsettled  about  mineralogy,  and  the  teachers  of  it  were  at 
variance,  and  no  teacher  was  convincing,  and  many  people, 
therefore,  were  disposed  to  throw  the  study  of  mineralogy 
overboard  altogether.  What  would  naturally  be  the  first 
business  for  every  friend  of  the  study  ?  Surely  to  estab- 
lish on  sure  grounds  the  value  of  the  study,  and  to 
put  its  claims  in  a  new  light  where  they  could  no  longer 
be  denied.  But  if  he  acted  as  our  Dissenters  act  in 
religion,  what  would  he  do  ?  Give  himself,  heart  and 
soul,  to  a  furious  crusade  against  keeping  the  Government 
School  of  Mines. 

But  meanwhile  there  is  now  an  end  to  all  fear  of 
doing  harm  by  gainsaying  the  received  theology  of  the 
churches  and  sects.  For  this  theology  is  itself  now  a 
hindrance  to  the  Bible  rather  than  a  help ;  nay,  to 
abandon  it,  to  put  some  other  construction  on  the  Bible 
than  this  theology  puts,  to  find  some  other  basis  for  the 
Bible  than  this  theology  finds,  is  indispensable,  if  we 
would  have  the  Bible  reach  the  people.  And  this  is  the 
aim  of  the  following  essay  :  to  show  that,  when  we  come 
to  put  the  right  construction  on  the  Bible,  we  give  to  the 
Bible  a  real  experimental  basis,  and  keep  on  this  basis 


PREFACE. 


throughout;  instead  of  any  basis  of  unverifiable  assump- 
tion to  start  with,  followed  by  a  string  of  other  unveri- 
fiable assumptions  of  the  like  kind,  such  as  the  received 
theology  necessitates. 

And  this  aim  we  cannot  seek  without  coming  in  sight  of 
another  aim,  too,  which  we  have  often  and  often  pointed 
out,  and  tried  to  recommend :  cidtwe^  the  acquainting 
ourselves  with  the  best  that  has  been  known  and  said 
in  the  world,  and  thus  with  the  history  of  the  human 
spirit.  One  cannot  go  far  in  the  attempt  to  bring  in, 
for  the  Bible,  a  right  construction,  without  seeing  how 
necessary  is  something  of  culture  to  its  being  admitted  and 
used.  The  correspondent  we  have  above  quoted  notices 
how  the  lack  of  culture  disposes  the  people  to  conclude 
at  once,  from  any  imperfection  or  fallibility  in  the  Bible, 
that  it  is  a  priestly  imposture.  To  a  large  extent,  this  is 
the  fault  not  of  the  people's  want  of  culture,  but  of  the 
priests  and  theologians,  who  for  centuries  have  kept  as- 
suring the  people  that  perfect  and  infallible  the  Bible  is. 
Still,  even  without  this  confusion  added  by  his  theological 
instructors,  the  Jiomo  tmms  libri,  the  man  of  no  range  in 
his  reading,  must  almost  inevitably  misunderstand  the 
Bible,  cannot  treat  it  largely  enough,  must  be  inchned  to 
treat  it  all  alike,  and  to  press  every  word. 


PREFACE. 


For,  on  the  one  hand,  he  has  not  enough  experience  of 
the  way  in  which  men  have  thought  and  spoken,  to  feel 
what  the  Bible-writers  are  about ;  to  read  between  the  lines, 
to  discern  where  he  ought  to  rest  with  his  whole  weight,  and 
where  he  ought  to  pass  lightly.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
void  and  hunger  in  his  mind,  from  want  of  aliment,  almost 
irresistibly  impels  him  to  fill  it  by  taking  literally  and 
amplifying  certain  data  which  he  finds  in  the  Bible, 
whether  they  ought  to  be  so  dealt  with  or  no.  Our 
mechanical  and  materialising  theology,  with  its  insane 
licence  of  affirmation  about  God,  its  insane  licence  of 
affirmation  about  a  future  state,  is  really  the  result  of  the 
poverty  and  inanition  of  our  minds.  It  is  because  we 
cannot  trace  God  in  history  that  we  stay  the  craving  of 
our  minds  with  a  fancy-account  of  him,  made  up  by 
putting  scattered  expressions  of  the  Bible  together,  and 
taking  them  literally  ;  it  is  because  we  have  such  a  scanty 
sense  of  the  life  of  humanity,  that  wx  proceed  in  the  like 
manner  in  our  scheme  of  a  future  state.  He  that  cannot 
watch  the  God  of  the  Bible,  and  the  salvation  of  the  Bible, 
gradually  and  on  an  immense  scale  discovering  them- 
selves and  becojuing^  will  insist  on  seeing  them  ready-made, 
and  in  such  precise  and  reduced  dimensions  as  may  suit 
his  narrow  mind. 


PREFACE. 


To  understand  that  the  language  of  the  Bible  is 
fluid,  passing,  and  literary,  not  rigid,  fixed,  and  scien- 
tific, is  the  first  step  towards  a  right  understanding  of  the 
Bible.  But  to  take  this  very  first  step,  some  experience 
of  how  men  have  thought  and  expressed  themselves,  and 
some  flexibility  of  spirit,  are  necessary;  and  this  is  culture. 
Much  fruit  may  be  got  out  of  the  Bible  without  it,  and 
with  those  narrow  and  materialised  schemes  of  God  and 
a  future  state  which  we  have  mentioned  ;  that  we  do  not 
deny,  but  it  is  not  the  important  point  at  present.  The 
important  point  is,  that  the  difiiision  everywhere  of  some 
notion  of  the  processes  of  the  experimental  sciences, 
—processes  falling  in,  too,  very  well  with  the  hard  and 
positive  character  of  the  life  of  'the  people,' — the  point  is, 
that  this  diffusion  does  lead  '  the  people '  to  ask  for  the 
ground  and  authority  for  these  precise  schemes  of  God 
and  a  future  state  which  are  presented  to  them,  and  to 
see  clearly  and  scornfully  the  failure  to  give  it.  The 
failure  to  give  it  is  inevitable,  because  given  it  cannot  be  ; 
but  whereas  in  the  training,  life,  and  sentiment  of  the 
educated  classes  there  is  much  to  make  them  disguise  the 
failure  to  themselves  and  not  insist  upon  it,  in  the  training, 
life,  and  sentiment  of  the  people  there  is  next  to  nothing. 
So  that,  as  far  as  the  people  are  concerned,  the  old  tra- 


PREFACE. 


ditional  scheme  of  the  Bible  is  gone  ;  while  neither  they 
nor  the  so-called  educated  classes  have  yet  anything 
to  put  in  its  place. 

And  thus  we  come  back  to  our  old  remedy  of  culture^ 
— knowing  the  best  that  has  been  thought  and  known  in 
the  world ;  which  turns  out  to  be,  in  another  shape, 
and  in  particular  relation  to  the  Bible :  getting  the 
power,  through  reading,  to  estimate  the  proportion  and 
relation  in  what  we  read.  If  we  read  but  a  very  little, 
we  naturally  want  to  press  it  all ;  if  we  read  a  great 
deal,  we  are  willing  not  to  press  the  whole  of  what  we 
read,  and  we  learn  what  ought  to  be  pressed  and  what 
not.  Now  this  is  really  the  very  foundation  of  any  sane 
criticism.  We  have  told  the  Dissenters  that  their  '  spirit 
of  watchful  jealousy'  is  wholly  destructive  and  exclusive  of 
the  spirit  of  Christianity.  They  answer  us,  that  St.  Paul 
talks  of  'a  godly  jealousy,'  and  that  Christ  uses  severe 
invectives  against  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees.  The  Dis- 
senters conclude,  therefore,  that  their  jealousy  is  Christian. 
And  so,  too,  as  to  the  frank,  unvarnished  language  of 
Mr.  Miall  at  home,  Mr.  Miall  speaking  out  of  the  abun- 
dance of  his  heart  as  a  Dissenter  to  Dissenters,  before 
he  draped  himself  philosophically  for  the  House  of  Com- 
mons and  the  world  in  his  garment  of  blazing  principles. 


PREFACE. 


as  messenger  and  minister  of  the  sublime  truth  that  the 
best  way  to  get  religion  known  and  honoured  is  to 
abolish  all  national  recognition  of  it.  'A  State  Church  ! ' 
cries  the  real  original  Mr.  Miall  \  '  have  people  never 
pondered  upon  the  practical  meaning  of  that  word  ?  have 
they  never  looked  into  that  dark,  polluted  inner  chamber 
of  which  it  is  the  door  ?  have  they  never  caught  a  glimpse 
of  the  loathsome  things  that  live  and  crawl  and  gender 
there  ? '  This,  I  say,  the  Dissenters  think  Christian,  be- 
cause covered  by  Christ's  use  of  invective. 

Now,  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever,  that  in  his  invec« 
tives  against  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  Christ  abandoned 
the  mild,  uncontentious,  winning,  inward  mode  of  working 
{He  shall  not  strive  nor  cry!)  which  was  his  true  charac- 
teristic, and  in  which  his  charm  and  power  lay ;  and  that 
there  was  no  chance  at  all  of  his  gaining  by  such  invectives 
the  persons  at  whom  they  were  launched.  The  same  may 
be  said  of  the  cases  where  St.  Paul  lets  loose  his  '  godly 
jealousy,'  and  employs  objurgation  instead  of  the  mild- 
ness which  was  Christ's  means,  and  which  Paul, — though 
himself  no  special  adept  at  it, — nevertheless  appreciated  so 
worthily,  and  so  earnestly  extols.  St.  Paul  certainly  had 
no  chance  of  convincing  those  whom  he  calls  '  dogs,'  the 

a 


xviii  PREFACE. 


*  concision,'  utterers  of  'profane  and  vain  babblings,'  by- 
such  a  manner  of  dealing  with  them. 

What  may,  indeed,  fairly  be  said  is,  that  the  Pharisees 
against  whom  Jesus  denounced  his  woes,  or  the  Judaisers 
against  whom  Paul  fulminated,  were  people  whom  there 
could  be  no  hope  of  gaining ;  and  that  not  their  conver- 
sion, but  a  strong  impression  on  the  faithful  who  read  or 
heard,  was  the  thing  aimed  at,  and  very  rightly  aimed  at. 
And  so  far  at  any  rate  as  Christ's  use  of  invective 
against  the  Pharisees  is  concerned,  this  may  be  quite  true; 
but  what  a  criticism  is  that,  which  can  gather  hence  any 
general  defence  of  jealousy  and  objurgation  as  Christian, 
or  any  particular  defence  of  them  as  we  see  the  Dissenters 
and  Mr.  Miall  using  them  1  For,  in  the  first  place,  such 
weapons  can  have  no  defence  at  all  except  as  employed 
against  individuals  who  are  past  hope,  or  against  institu- 
tions which  are  palpably  monstrosities;  they  can  have  none 
as  employed  against  institutions  containing  more  than 
half  a  great  nation,  and  therefore  a  multitude  of  individuals 
good  as  well  as  bad.  And  therefore  we  see  that  Christ 
never  dreamed  of  assailing  the  Jewish  Church;  all  he 
cared  for  was  to  transform  it,  by  transforming  as  many 
as  were  transformable  of  the  individuals  composing  it. 
In  the  second  place,  when   such  means  of  action  have 


PREFACE. 


a  defence,  they  are  defensible  although  violations  of 
Christ's  estabhshed  rule  of  working,  never  commend- 
able as  exemplifications  of  it.  Mildness  and  sweet 
reasonableness  is  the  one  established  rule  for  Chris- 
tian working,  and  no  other  rule  has  it  or  can  it 
have.  But,  using  the  Bible  in  the  mechanical  and  help- 
less way  in  which  one  uses  it  when  one  has  hardly  any 
other  book,  men  fail  to  see  this,  clear  as  it  is.  And  they 
do  really  come  to  imagine  that  the  Dissenters'  '  spirit  of 
watchful  jealousy,'  may  be  a  Christian  temper ;  or  that  a 
movement  like  Mr.  Miall's  crusade  against  the  Church 
of  England  may  be  a  Christian  work.  And  it  is  in  this 
way  that  Christianity  gets  discredited. 

Now,  simple  as  it  is,  it  is  not  half  enough  understood, 
this  reason  for  culture  :  namely,  that  to  read  to  good 
purpose  we  must  read  a  great  deal,  and  be  content  not 
to  use  a  great  deal  of  what  we  read.  We  shall  never  be 
content  not  to  use  the  whole,  or  nearly  the  whole,  of  what 
we  read,  unless  we  read  a  great  deal.  Yet  things  are 
on  such  a  scale,  and  progress  is  so  gradual,  and  what 
one  man  can  do  is  so  J)ounded,  that  the  moment  we  press 
the  whole  of  what  any  writer  says,  we  fall  into  error.  He 
touches  a  great  deal ;  the  thing  to  know  is  where  he  is 
all  himself  and  his  best  self,  where  he  shows  his  power, 


PREFACE. 


where  he  goes  to  the  heart  of  the  matter,  where  he  gives 
us  what  no  other  man  gives  us,  or  gives  us  so  well. 
In  his  valuable  Chicrch  -History^  Dr.  Stoughton  says  of 
Hooker  :  '  The  Puritan  principle  of  the  authority  and 
unchangeableness  of  a  revealed  Church  polity  Hooker  sub- 
stantially admits.  Although  this  deep  thinker  sometimes 
talks  perilously  of  altering  Christ's  laws,  he  says  :  "  In  the 
matter  of  external  discipline  itself,  we  do  not  deny  but 
there  are  some  things  whereto  the  Church  is  bound  till 
the  world's  end."  '  Dr.  Stoughton  does  not  see  that  to 
use  his  Hooker  in  this  way  is  entirely  fallacious.  Hooker, 
this  'deep  thinker,'  as  Dr.  Stoughton  truly  calls  him,  one  of 
the  four  great  names  of  the  English  Church,  is  great  by 
having,  signally  and  above  others,  or  before  others  and 
when  others  had  not,  the  sense,  in  religion,  of  history  and 
of  historic  development.  So,  too,  Butler  is  great  by  having 
the  sense  of  philosophy,  Barrow  by  havmg  that  of  morals, 
AVilson  that  of  practical  Christianity.  But  if  Hooker 
spoke,  as  he  did,  of  Church-history  like  a  historian,  and 
exploded  the  Puritan  figment,  due  to  a  defective  historic 
sense,  of  a  revealed  Church-polity,  a  Scriptural  Church- 
order, — if  Hooker  did  this,  this  was  so  new  that  he  could 
not  possibly  do  it  without  reservations,  limitations,  apo- 
logies ;  he  could  not  help  saying  :  '  We  do  not  deny  there 


PREFACE.  xxi 

may  be  some  external  things  whereto  the  Church  is 
eternally  bound.'  But  he  is  truly  himself,  he  is  the  great 
Hooker,  the  man  from  whom  we  learn,  when  he  shatters 
the  Purita]!  figment,  not  when  he  uses  the  language  of 
compliment  and  ceremony  in  shattering  it. 

In  like  manner  that  eloquent  orator,  Mr.  Liddon, 
looking  about  him  for  authorities  which  commend  the 
Athanasian  Creed,  finds  Hooker  commendmg  it,  and 
quotes  him  as  an  authority.  This,  again,  is  to  make  a 
use  of  Hooker  which  has  no  soundness  in  it.  Hooker's 
greatness  is  that  he  gives  the  real  method  of  criticism 
for  Church-dogma,  the  historic  method.  Church-dogma 
is  not  written  in  black  and  white  in  the  Bible,  he  says  ; 
it  has  to  be  collected  from  it;  it  is,  as  we  now  say, 
a  development  from  it.  This  and  that  dogma,  says 
Hooker,  'are  in  Scripture  nowhere  to  be  found  by 
express  literal  mention,  only  deduced  they  are  out  of 
Scripture  by  collection.'  And  he  assigns  the  one  right 
criterion  for  determining  whether  a  dogma  is  justly  de- 
duced, and  what  Scripture  means,  and  what  is  its  true 
character  :  the  criterion  of  reason.  He  assigns  this  with 
splendid  boldness:  '  It  is  not  the  word  of  God  itself,' says 
he,  'which  doth,  or  possibly  can,  assure  us  that  we 
do  well  to   think   it  his  word ; '  no,  it  is  reason,  much- 


PREFACE. 


reviled  reason.  Surely  this  is  enough  to  expect  a 
sixteenth-century  divine  to  give  us  in  theology, — the  very 
method  of  true  science !  without  expecting  him  to  make 
the  full  application  of  it,  without  expecting  him  to  say 
that  the  Church-dogmas  of  his  time,  the  dogma  of  the 
Athanasian  Creed  among  the  rest,  which  were  not 
seriously  in  question  yet,  on  which  the  Time-Spirit  had 
not  then  turned  his  light,  vftiQ false  developments;  with- 
out wondering  at  his  saying,  that  they  were  developments 
'  the  necessity  whereof  is  by  none  denied  ! '  This  is  all 
that  Hooker's  warranty  of  the  Athanasian  Creed  really 
comes  to,  or  can  come  to.  To  fix  the  method  by  which 
the  Creed  must  finally  be  judged  was  the  main  issue  for 
him  ;  to  Judge  the  creed  by  that  method  was  a  side  issue, 
whereon  he  never  really  entered  nor  could  enter,  but 
treated  the  thing  as  already  settled.  Therefore  Hooker 
is  no  real  authority  in  favour  of  the  Athanasian  Creed ; 
though  we  might  think  he  was,  if  we  read  him  without 
discrimination.  And  to  read  him  with  discrimination, 
culture  is  necessary. 

Luther,  again,  Mr.  Liddon  cites  as  a  witness  on  the 
question  of  the  Athanasian  Creed ;  and  he  might  as  well 
cite  him  as  a  witness  on  the  question  of  the  origin  of 
species.     Luther's  greatness  is  in  his  revival  of  the  sense 


PREFACE.  xxiii 


of  conscience  and  personal  responsibility,  and  in  the  fresh 
vigorous  power  which  this  sense,  joined  to  his  robust 
mother-wit,  gave  him  in  using  the  Bible.  He  had  enough 
to  do  in  attacking  Romish  developments  from  the  Bible, 
which  by  their  practical  side  were  evidently,  to  a  plain 
moral  sense  and  a  plain  mother-wit, /^Zf^  developments, 
without  attacking  speculative  dogma,  which  had  no  visible 
connexion  with  practice,  which  had  all  antiquity  in  its 
favour,  on  which,  as  we  say,  the  Time-Spirit  had  not 
then  turned  his  light,  of  which, — so  Luther  might  say,  like 
Hooker, — '  the  necessity  is  by  none  denied.'  All  this  high 
speculative  dogma  he  could  not  but  affirm,  and  the  more 
emphatically  the  more  he  questioned  lower  practical 
dogma.  But  his  affimiation  of  it  is  not  one  of  those 
things  we  can  use ;  and  whoever  reads  in  the  folios  of 
Luther's  works  without  passing  lightly  over  very  much, 
and,  amongst  it,  over  this,  reads  there  ill.  And  without 
culture,  without  the  use  of  so  many  books  that  he  can 
afford  not  to  over-use  and  mis-use  one^  ill  a  man  is  likely 
to  read  there. 

We  can  hardly  urge  this  topic  too  much,  of  so  great  a 
practical  importance  is  it,  and  above  all  at  the  present 
time.  To  be  able  to  control  what  one  reads  by  means 
of  the  tact  coming,  in  a  clear  and  fair  mind,  from  a  wide 


PREFACE. 


experience,  was  never  perhaps  so  necessary  as  in  the 
England  of  our  own  day,  and  in  theology,  and  in  what 
concerns  the  Bible.  To  get  the  facts,  the  data,  in  all  matters 
of  science,  but  notably  in  theology  and  Biblical  learning, 
one  goes  to  Germany.  Germany,  and  it  is  her  high 
honour,  has  searched  out  the  facts  and  exhibited  them. 
And  without  knowledge  of  the  facts,  no  clearness  or 
fairness  of  mind  can  in  any  study  do  anything;  this 
cannot  be  laid  down  too  rigidly.  Now,  English  religion 
does  not  know  the  facts  of  its  study,  and  has  to  go  to 
Germany  for  them ;  this  is  half  apparent  to  English 
religion  even  now,  and  it  will  become  more  and  more 
apparent.  And  so  overwhelming  is  the  advantage  given 
by  knowing  the  facts  of  a  study,  that  a  student  who  comes 
to  a  man  who  knows  them  is  tempted  to  put  himself  into 
his  hands  altogether ;  and  this  we  in  general  see  English 
students  do,  when  they  have  recourse  to  the  theologians 
of  Germany.  They  put  themselves  altogether  into  their 
hands,  and  take  all  that  they  give  them,  conclusions  as 
well  as  facts. 

But  they  ought  not  to  use  them  in  this  manner ;  for 
a  man  may  have  the  facts  and  yet  be  unable  to  draw  the 
right  conclusions  from  them.  In  general,  he  may  want 
power ;  as  one  may  say  of  Dr.  Strauss,  for  instance,  that 


PREFACE. 


to  what  is  unsolid  in  the  New  Testament  he  appHes  the 
historic  method  ably  enough,  but  that  to  deal  with  the 
reality  which  is  still  left  in  the  New  Testament,  requires 
a  larger,  richer,  deeper,  more  imaginative  mind  than  his. 
But  perhaps  the  quality  specially  needed  for  drawing  the 
right  conclusion  from  the  facts,  when  one  has  got  them, 
is  best  called  pei'ception^  delicacy  of  perception.  And 
this  no  man  can  have  who  is  a  mere  specialist,  who  has 
not  what  we  call  ailturc  in  addition  to  the  knowledge  of 
his  particular  study;  and  many  theologians,  in  Germany 
as  well  as  elsewhere,  are  specialists.  And  even  when  we 
have  added  culture  to  special  knowledge,  a  good  fortune, 
a  natural  tact,  a  perception,  must  go  with  our  culture,  to 
make  our  criticism  sure.  And  here  is  what  renders  criti- 
cism so  large  a  thing:  namely,  that  learning  alone  is  not 
enough,  one  must  have  perception  too.  '  I,  wisdom,  dwell 
with  subtlety^'  says  the  Wise  Man;  and,  taking  subtlety 
in  a  good  sense,  this  is  most  true.  After  we  have  ac- 
quainted ourselves  with  the  best  that  has  been  known  in 
the  world,  after  we  have  got  all  the  facts  of  our  special 
study,  fineness  and  delicacy  of  perception  to  deal  with 
the  facts  is  still  required,  and  is,  even,  the  principal  thing 
of  all. 

And  in  this  the  German  mind,  if  one  may  allow  oneself 


PREFACE. 


to  speak  in  such  a  general  way,  does  seem  to  be  somewhat 
wanting.  In  the  German  mind,  as  in  the  German  lan- 
guage, there  does  seem  to  be  something  splay^  something 
blunt-edged,  unhandy  and  infelicitous,— some  want  of 
quick,  fine,  sure  perception,  which  tends  to  balance  the 
great  superiority  of  the  Germans  in  knowledge,  and  in 
the  disposition  to  deal  impartially  with  knowledge.  For 
impartial  they  are,  as  well  as  learned ;  and  this  is  a  signal 
merit.  While  M.  Barthelemy  St.-Hilaire  cannot  trans- 
late Aristotle  without  dragging  in  his  pompous  and 
false  platitudes  in  glorification  of  the  French  gospel  of 
the  Rights  of  Man,  while  one  English  historian  ^M-ites 
history  to  extol  the  Whigs  and  another  to  execrate  the 
Church,  German  workers  proceed  in  a  more  philo- 
sophical fashion.  Still,  in  quickness  and  delicacy  of  per- 
ception they  do  seem  to  come  short. 

Of  course  in  a  man  of  genius  this  delicacy  and  dexterity 
of  perception  is  much  less  lacking  ;  but  even  in  Germans 
of  genius  there  seems  some  lack  of  it.  Goethe,  for  instance, 
has  less  of  it,  one  must  surely  own,  than  the  great  men  of 
other  nations  whom  alone  one  can  cite  as  his  literary  com- 
peers :  Shakspeare,  Voltaire,  Macchiavel,  Cicero,  Plato. 
Or,  to  go  a  little  lower  down,  compare  Bentley  as  a  critic 
with  Hermann; — Bentley  treating  Menander  with  Her- 


PREFACE. 


mann  treating  ^schylus.  Both  are  on  ground  favourable 
to  them ;  both  know  thoroughly,  one  may  say,  the  facts 
of  their  case ;  yet  such  is  the  difference  between  them, 
somehow,  in  dexterousness  and  sureness  of  perception, 
that  the  gifted  English  scholar  is  wrong  hardly  ever, 
whereas  the  gifted  German  scholar  is  wrong  very  often. 
And  then  every  learned  German  is  not  gifted,  is  not  a  man 
of  genius.  Whether  it  be,  as  we  have  elsewhere  speculated,^ 
from  race ;  or  whether  this  quickness  and  sureness  of 
perception  comes,  rather,  from  a  long  practical  conver- 
sance with  great  affairs,  and  only  those  nations  which  have 
at  any  time  had  a  practical  lead  of  the  civilised  world,  the 
Greeks,  the  Romans,  the  Italians,  the  French,  the  English, 
can  have  it  j  and  the  Germans  have  till  now  had  no  such 
practical  lead,  though  now  they  have  got  it,  and  may 
now,  therefore,  acquire  the  practical  dexterity  of  percep- 
tion ; — however  this  may  be,  the  thing  is  so,  and  a 
learned  German  has  by  no  means,  in  general,  a  fine 
and  practically  sure  perception  in  proportion  to  his 
learning.  Give  a  Frenchman,  an  Italian,  an  Englishman, 
the  same  knowledge  of  the  facts,  removing  from  him,  at 
the  same  time,  all  such  disturbing  influence  as  political 
partisanship,  ecclesiastical  antipathies,  national  vanity, 
and  you  could,  in  general,  trust  his  perception  more  than 
*  On  the  Study  of  Celtic  Literature,  p.  97. 


PREFACE. 


you  can  the  German's.  This,  I  say,  shows  how  large  a 
thing  criticism  is;  since  even  of  those  from  whom  we 
take  what  we  now  in  theology  most  want,  knowledge  of 
the  facts  of  our  study,  and  to  whom  therefore  we  are,  and 
ought  to  be,  under  deep  obligations,  even  of  them  we 
must  not  take  too  much,  or  take  anything  like  all  that 
they  offer ;  but  we  must  take  much  and  leave  much,  and 
must  have  experience  enough  to  know  what  to  take  and 
what  to  leave.  And  without  culture  we  cannot  have  this 
experience;  although  it  is  true  that  even  culture  itself, 
without  good  fortune  and  tact,  v.ill  not  fully  give  it. 
Still,  our  best  and  only  chance  of  it  is  through  means  of 
culture. 

But  it  is  for  the  Bible  itself  that  this  discriminative 
experience,  so  necessary  in  all  our  theological  studies,  is 
most  needed.  And  to  our  popular  religion  it  is  especi- 
ally difficult ;  because  we  have  been  trained  to  regard  the 
Bible,  not  as  a  book  whose  parts  have  varying  degrees  of 
value,  but  as  the  Jews  came  to  regard  their  Scriptures,  as 
a  sort  of  talisman  given  down  to  us  out  of  Heaven,  with 
all  its  parts  equipollent.  And  yet  there  was  a  time  when 
Jews  knew  well  the  vast  difference  there  is  between  books 
like  Esther,  Chronicles,  or  Daniel,  and  books  like  Genesis 
or  Isaiah ;  there  was  a  time  when  Christians  knew  well 
the  vast  difference  between  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter 


PREFACE. 


and  his  so-called  Second  Episde,  or  between  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  and  the  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  to  the 
Corinthians.  This,  indeed,  is  what  makes  the  religious 
watchword  of  the  British  and  Foreign  School  Society  : 
The  Bible,  the  whole  Bible,  atid  nothing  but  the  Bible  !  so 
ingeniously  (one  must  say  it)  absurd ;  it  is  treating 
the  Bible  as  Mahometans  treat  the  Koran,  as  if  it  were 
a  talisman  all  of  one  piece,  and  with  all  its  sentences 
equipollent. 

Yet  the  very  expressions,  Canon  of  Scripture,  Canonical 
Books,  recall  a  time  when  degrees  of  value  w^re  still  felt, 
and  all  parts  of  the  Bible  did  not  stand  on  the  same 
footing,  and  were  not  taken  equally.  There  was  a  time 
when  books  were  read  as  part  of  the  Bible  which  are 
in  no  Bible  now  ;  there  was  a  time  when  books,  which  are 
in  every  Bible  now,  were  by  many  disallowed  as  genuine 
parts  of  the  Bible.  St.  Athanasius  rejected  the  Book  of 
Esther,  and  the  Greek  Christianity  of  the  East  repelled 
the  Apocalypse,  and  the  Latin  Christianity  of  the  West 
repelled  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  And  a  true  critical 
sense  of  relative  value  lay  at  the  bottom  of  all  these 
rejections.  No  one  rejected  Isaiah  or  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans;  the  books  rejected  were  such  books  as  those 
which  we  now  print  as  the  Apocrypha,  or  as  the  book  of 
Esther,  or  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  or  the  so-called 


PREFACE. 


Epistle  of  Jiide,  or  the  so-called  Second  Epistle  of  St. 
Peter,  or  the  two  short  Epistles  following  the  main  Epistle 
attributed  to  St.  John,  or  the  Apocalypse. 

Now,  whatever  value  one  may  assign  to  these  works, 
no  sound  critic  would  rate  their  intrinsic  worth  as  high 
as  that  of  the  great  undisputed  books  of  the  Bible. 
And  so  far  from  their  finally  getting  where  they  now  are 
after  a  thorough  trial  of  their  claims,  and  with  indis- 
putable propriety,  they  got  placed  there  by  the  force  of 
circumstances,  by  chance  or  by  routine,  rather  than  on 
their  merits.  Indeed,  by  merit  alone  the  Book  of 
Esther  could  have  now  no  right  to  be  in  our  Canon 
while  Ecclesiasticus  is  not,  nor  the  Epistle  of  Jude  and 
the  Second  Epistle  of  Peter  rather  than  the  First  Epistle  of 
Clement.  But  the  whole  discussion  died  out,  not  because 
the  matter  was  sifted  and  settled  and  a  perfect  Canon  of 
Scripture  deliberately  formed ;  it  died  out  as  mediaeval 
ignorance  deepened,  and  because  there  was  no  longer 
knowledge  or  criticism  enough  left  in  the  world  to  keep 
such  a  discussion  alive. 

And  so  things  went  on  till  the  Renascence,  when  criti- 
cism came  to  Ufe  again.  But  the  Church  had  now  long 
since  adopted  the  Vulgate,  and  her  authority  was  con- 
cerned in  maintaining  what  she  had  adopted.     Luther  and 


PREFACE. 


Calvin,  on  the  other  hand,  recurred  to  the  old  true  notion 
of  a  difference  in  rank  and  genuineness  among  the  Bible- 
books.     For  they  both  of  them  insisted  on  the  criterion 
of  internal  evidence  for  Scripture: '  the  witness  of  the  Spirit' 
How  freely  Luther  used  this  criterion,  we   may  see  by 
reading  in  the  old  editions  of  his  Bible  his  prefaces,  which 
in  succeeding  editions  have  long  ceased  to  appear ;  whether 
he  used  it  aright  we  do  not  now  inquire,  but  he  used  it 
freely.     Taunted,  however,  by  Rome  with  their  divisions, 
their  want  of  a  fixed  authority  like  the  Church,  Protes- 
tants were  driven  to  make  the  Bible  this  fixed  authority; 
and  so  the  Bible  came  to  be  regarded  as  a  thing  all  of 
a  piece,  endued  with  talismanic  virtues.     It  came  to  be 
regarded   as   something  different  from   anything  it  had 
originally  ever  been,  or  primitive  times  had  ever  imagined 
it  to  be.     And  Protestants  did  practically  in  this  way 
use  the  Bible  more  irrationally  than  Rome  practically  ever 
used   it ;  for   Rome  had  her  hypothesis   of  the  Church 
Catholic  endued  with  talismanic  virtues,  and  did  not  want 
a  talismanic  Bible  too.     All  this  perversion  has  made  a 
discriminating  use  of  the  Bible-documents  very  difficult  in 
our  country ;  yet  without  it  a  sound  criticism  of  the  Bible 
is  impossible ;  and  even,  as  we  say,  the  very  word  Cation , 
the  Canon  of  Scripture,  points  to  such  a  use. 


PREFACE. 


V 


But,  indeed,  there  is  hardly  any  great  thing  perverted 
by  men,  which  does  not  in  some  sort  thus  indicate  its  own 
perversion.  The  idea  of  the  infalHble  Church  CathoHc 
itself,  as  we  have  elsewhere  said,^  is  an  idea  the  most  fatal 
of  all  possible  ideas  to  the  concrete,  so-called  infallible, 
Church  of  Rome,  such  as  we  see  it.  The  infallible  Church 
Catholic  is,  really,  the  prophetic  soul  of  the  wide  7uorld 
dreaming  on  things  to  come;  the  whole  race,  in  its  onward 
progress,  developing  truth  more  complete  than  the  parcel 
of  truth  any  momentary  individual  can  seize.  Nay,  and 
it  is  with  the  Pope  himself  as  with  the  Church  Catholic. 
That  amiable  old  pessimist  in  St.  Peter's  Chair,  whose 
allocutions  we  read  and  call  them  impotent  and  vain, — 
the  Pope  himself  is,  in  his  idea,  the  very  Time-Spirit 
taking  flesh,  the  incarnate  '  Zeit-Geist '  !  O  man,  how 
true  are  thine  instincts,  how  over-hasty  thine  interpreta- 
tions of  them  ! 

But  to  return.  Difficult,  certainly,  is  the  right  reading 
of  the  Bible,  and  true  culture,  too,  is  difficult.  For  true 
-culture  implies  not  only  knowledge,  but  right  tact  and 
delicacy  of  judgment,  forming  themselves  by  knowledge ; 
without  this  tact  it  is  not  true  culture.  Difficult,  how- 
ever, as  culture  is,  it  is  necessary.  For,  after  all,  the  Bible 
is  not  a  talisman,  to  be  taken  and  used  literally ;  neither 
"^  St.  Paid  and  Protestantism^  p.  156. 


PREFACE.  xxxiii 

is  any  existing  Church  a  talisman,  whatever  pretensions  of 
the  sort  it  may  make,  for  giving  the  right  interpretation 
of  the  Bible.  Only  true  culture  can  give  us  this  interpreta- 
tion ;  so  that  if  conduct  is,  as  it  is,  inextricably  bound  up 
with  the  Bible  and  the  right  interpretation  of  it,  then 
the  importance  of  culture  becomes  unspeakable.  For  if 
conduct  is  necessary  (and  there  is  nothing  so  necessary), 
culture  is  necessary. 

And  the  poor  require  it  as  much  as  the  rich ;  and  at 
present  their  education,  even  when  they  get  education, 
gives  them  hardly  anything  of  it.  Yet  hardly  less  of  it, 
perhaps,  than  the  education  of  the  rich  gives  to  the  rich. 
For  when  we  say  that  culture  is  :  To  know  the  best  thai 
has  been  thought  and  said  in  the  world.,  we  imply  that,  for 
culture,  a  system  directly  tending  to  this  end  is  necessary 
in  our  reading.  Now,  there  is  no  such  system  yet  present 
to  guide  the  reading  of  the  rich,  any  more  than  of  the  poor. 
Such  a  system  is  hardly  even  thought  of;  a  man  who 
wants  it  must  make  it  for  himself.  And  our  reading 
being  so  without  purpose  as  it  is,  nothing  can  be  truer  than 
what  Butler  says,  that  really,  in  general,  no  part  of  our 
time  is  more  idly  spent  than  the  time  spent  in  reading. 

Still,  culture  is  indispensably  necessary,  and  culture  is 
reading;  but  reading  with  a  purpose  to  guide  it,   and 

b 


PREFACE. 


with  system.  He  does  a  good  work  who  does  anything 
to  help  this ;  indeed,  it  is  the  one  essential  service  now  to 
be  rendered  to  education.  And  the  plea,  that  this  or 
that  man  has  no  time  for  culture,  will  vanish  as  soon  as 
we  desire  culture  so  much  that  we  begin  to  examine 
seriously  our  present  use  of  our  time.  It  has  often  been 
said,  and  cannot  be  said  too  often  :  Give  to  any  man 
all  the  time  that  he  now  wastes,  not  only  on  his  vices 
(when  he  has  them),  but  on  useless  business,  weari- 
some or  deteriorating  amusements,  trivial  letter-writing, 
random  reading ;  and  he  will  have  plenty  of  time  for 
culture.  '  Die  Zeit  ist  unetidlich  laiig^  says  Goethe  ;  and 
so  it  really  is.  Some  of  us  waste  all  of  it,  most  of  us 
waste  much  \  but  all  of  us  waste  some. 


CONTENTS. 


Introduction t 

CHAPTER 

I.     Religion  Given to 

II.  Aberglaube  Invading   .         .         .         .61 

III.  Religion  New-given        ....       79 

IV.  The  Proof  from  Prophecy    .         .         .107 
V.  The  Proof  from  Miracles    .         .         .116 

VI.     The  New  Testament  Record        •        .     149 

VII.  The  Testimony  of  Jesus  to  Himself  .     182 

VIII.  The  Early  Witnesses    ....     250 


xxxvi  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 


IX.     Aberglaube  Re-invading       .         .         .275 

X.     Our  'Masses'  and  the  Bible       .        .312 

XI.     The  True  Greatness  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament       ......     340 

XII.     The  True  Greatness  of  Christianity     365 

Conclusion 383 


LITERATURE  and  DOGMA. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Mr.  Disraeli,  treating  Hellenic  things  with  the  scornful 
negligence  natural  to  a  Hebrew,  said  the  other  day  in  a 
well-known  book,  that  our  aristocratic  class,  the  polite 
flower  of  the  nation,  were  truly  Hellenic  in  this  respect 
among  others, — that  they  cared  nothing  for  letters  and 
never  read.  Now  there  seems  to  be  here  some  inac- 
curacy if  we  take  our  standard  of  what  is  Hellenic  from 
Hellas  at  its  highest  pitch  of  development ;  for  the  latest 
historian  of  Greece,  Dr.  Curtius,  tells  us  that  in  the  Athens 
of  Pericles  '  reading  was  universally  diffused ;'  and  again, 
that  '  what  more  than  anything  distinguishes  the  Greeks 
from  the  barbarians  of  ancient  and  modern  times,  is  the 
idea  of  a  culture  comprehending  body  and  soul  in  an 
equal  measure.'     And  we  have  ourselves  called  our  aris- 

B 


LITERATURE  AND    DOGMA. 


tocratic  class  barbaria7is,  which  is  the  contrary  of 
Hellenes,  from  this  very  reason  :  because,  with  all  their 
fine,  fresh  appearance,  their  open-air  life,  and  their  love 
for  field-sports,  for  reading  and  thinking  they  have  in 
general  no  turn.  But  no  doubt  Mr.  Disraeli  was  thinking 
of  the  primitive  Hellenes  of  north-western  Greece,  from 
among  whom  the  Dorians  of  Peloponnesus  originally 
came,  but  who  themselves  remained  in  their  old  seats 
and  did  not  migrate  and  develop  like  their  more  famous 
brethren.  And  of  these  primitive  Hellenes,  of  Greeks  like 
the  Chaonians  and  Molossians,  it  is  probably  a  very 
just  account  to  give,  that  they  lived  in  the  open  air,  loved 
field-sports,  and  never  read.  And,  explained  in  this  way, 
Mr.  Disraeli's  parallel  of  our  aristocratic  class  with  what 
he  somewhat  misleadingly  calls  the  old  Hellenic  race, 
appears  ingenious  and  sound.  To  those  lusty  northerners, 
the  Molossian  or  Chaonian  Greeks, — Greeks  untouched 
by  the  development  which  contra-distinguishes  the  Hel- 
lene from  the  barbarian, — our  aristocratic  class,  as  he  ex- 
hibits it,  has  a  strong  resemblance.  At  any  rate,  this 
class, — which  from  its  great  possessions,  its  beauty  and 
attractiveness,  the  admiration  felt  for  it  by  the  Philistines 
or  middle-class,  its  actual  power  in  the  nation,  and  the 
still  more  considerable  destinies  to  which  its  politeness, 
in  Mr.  Carlyle's  opinion,  entitles  it,  cannot  but  attract  our 


INTRODUCTION. 


notice  pre-eminently, — shows   at  present    a    great    and 
genuine  disregard  for  letters. 

And  perhaps,  if  there  is  any  other  body  of  men  which 
strikes  one,  even  after  looking  at  our  aristocratic  class,  as 
being  in  the  sunshine,  as  exercising  great  attraction,  as 
being  admired  by  the  PhiHstines  or  middle-class,  and  as 
having  before  it  a  future  still  more  brilliant  than  its 
present,  it  is  the  friends  of  physical  science.  Now,  their 
revolt  against  the  tyranny  of  letters  is  notorious ;  to 
deprive  letters  of  the  too  great  place  they  have  hitherto 
filled  in  men's  estimation,  and  to  substitute  other  studies 
for  these,  is  the  object  of  a  sort  of  crusade  with  a  body 
of  people  important  in  itself,  but  still  more  important 
because  of  the  gifted  leaders  who  march  at  its  head. 

Religion  has  always  hitherto  been  a  great  power  in 
England;  and  on  this  account,  perhaps,  whatever  humilia- 
tions may  be  in  store  for  religion  in  the  future,  the  friends 
of  physical  science  will  not  object  to  our  saying,  that, 
after  them  and  the  aristocracy,  the  leaders  of  the  religious 
world  fill  a  prominent  place  in  the  public  eye  even  now, 
and  one  cannot  help  noticing  what  their  opinions  and 
likings  are.  And  it  is  curious  how  the  feeling  of  the 
chief  people  in  the  religious  world,  too,  seems  to  be  just 
now  against  mere  letters,  which  they  slight  as  the  vague 
and  inexact  instrument  of  shallow  essayists  and  magazine- 

B  2 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


writers ;  and  in  favour  of  dogma,  of  a  scientific  and  exact 
presentment  of  religious  things,  instead  of  a  literary  pre- 
sentment of  them.  '  Dogmatic  theology,'  says  the 
Guardian,  speaking  of  our  existing  dogmatic  theology, 
— '■  Dogmatic  theology,  that  is,  precision  and  definiteness 
of  religious  thought'  '  Maudlin  sentimentalism,'  says  the 
Dean  of  Norwich,  *  with  its  miserable  disparagements  of 
any  definite  doctrine;  a  nerveless  religion,  without  the 
sine^Li  and  hone  of  doctrine.'  The  distinguished  Chan- 
cellor of  the  University  of  Oxford  thought  it  needful  to 
tell  us  on  a  public  occasion  lately,  that  'religion  is  no 
more  to  be  severed  from  dogma  than  light  from  the  sun.' 
Every  one,  again,  remembers  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  ^ 
and  Gloucester  making  in  Convocation  the  other  day 
their  remarkable  effort  '  to  do  something,'  as  they  said, 
*  for  the  honour  of  Our  Lord's  Godhead,'  and  to  mark 
their  sense  of  '  that  infinite  separation  for  time  and  for 
eternity  which  is  involved  in  rejecting  the  Godhead  of 
the  Eternal  Son.'  In  the  same  way  :  'To  no  teaching,' 
says  one  champion  of  dogma,  '  can  the  appellation  of 
Christian  be  truly  given  v/hich  does  not  involve  the  idea 
of  a  Personal  God.'  Another  lays  like  stress  on  correct 
ideas  about  the  Personality  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  '  Our 
Lord  unquestionably,'  says  a  third,  '  annexes  eternal  life 
^  The  late  Bishop  Wilberforce. 


INTRODUCTION. 


to  a  right  knowledge  of  the  Godhead,' — that  is,  to  a  right 
speculative,  dogmatic  knowledge  of  it.  A  fourth  appeals 
to  history  and  human  nature  for  proof  that  '  an  undog- 
matic  Church  can  no  more  satisfy  the  hunger  of  the  soul, 
than  a  snowball,  painted  to  look  like  fruit,  would  stay  the 
hunger  of  the  stomach.'  And  all  these  friends  of  theo- 
logical science  are,  hke  the  friends  of  physical  science, 
though  from  another  cause,  severe  upon  letters.  At- 
tempts made  at  a  literary  treatment  of  religious  history 
and  ideas  they  call  '  a  subverting  of  the  faith  once  de- 
livered to  the  saints;'  those  w^ho  make  them  they  speak 
of  as  'those  who  have  made  shipwreck  of  the  faith;'  and 
when  they  talk  of  'the  poison  openly  disseminated  by 
infidels,'  and  describe  the  'progress  of  infidelity,'  which 
more  and  more,  according  to  their  account,  '  denies  God, 
rejects  Christ,  and  lets  loose  every .  human  passion,' 
though  they  have  the  audaciousness  of  physical  science 
most  in  their  eye,  yet  they  have  a  direct  aim,  too,  at  the 
looseness  and  dangerous  temerity  of  letters. 

Keeping  in  remembrance  the  Scriptural  comment  on. 
the  young  man's  case  who  had  great  possessions,  to  be 
able  to  work  a  change  of  mind  in  our  aristocratic  class  we 
never  have  pretended,  we  never  shall  pretend.  But  to 
the  friends  of  physical  science  and  to  the  friends  of  dogma 
we  do  feel  emboldened,  after  giving  our  best  considera- 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


tion  to  the  matter,  to  say  a  few  words  on  behalf  of  letters, 
and  in  deprecation  of  the  slight  which,  on  different 
grounds,  they  both  put  upon  them.  But  particularly  to 
the  friends  of  religious  dogma  do  we  wish  to  insist  on  the 
case  for  letters,  because  of  the  great  issues  which  seem  to 
us  to  be  here  involved.  Therefore  we  shall  take  leave, 
in  spite  of  modern  fashions,  still  to  treat  theology  with  so 
much  respect  as  to  give  her  the  first  place ;  and  with 
the  subject  of  the  present  volume,  literature  and  dogma' 
we  shall  make  our  beginning. 


It  is  clear  that  dogmatists  love  religion  ; — for  else  why 
do  they  occupy  themselves  with  it  so  much,  and  make  it, 
most  of  them,  the  business,  even  the  professional  business, 
of  their  lives  ?  And  clearly  religion  seeks  man's  salvation. 
How  distressing,  therefore,  must  it  be  to  them,  to  think 
that  '  salvation  is  unquestionably  annexed  to  a  right  know- 
ledge of  the  Godhead,'  and  that  a  right  knowledge  of  the 
Godhead  depends  upon  reasoning,  for  which  so  many 
people  have  not  much  aptitude ;  and  upon  reasoning  from 
ideas  or  terms  such  as  substance,  identity,  causation, 
design,  about  which  there  is  endless  disagreement  !  It  is 
true,  a  right  knowledge  of  geometry  also  depends  upon 
reasoning,  and  many  people  never  get  it ;  but  then,  in  the 


INTRODUCTION, 


first  place,  salvation  is  not  annexed  to  a  right  knowledge 
of  geometry  ;  and  in  the  second,  the  ideas  or  terms  such 
3iS  point,  line,  angle,  from  which  we  reason  in  geometry, 
are  terms  about  which  there  is  no  ambiguity  or  disagree- 
ment. But  as  to  the  demonstrations  and  terms  of  theology 
we  cannot  comfort  ourselves  in  this  manner.  How  must 
this  thought  mar  the  Archbishop  of  York's  enjoyment  of 
such  a  solemnity  as  that  in  which,  to  uphold  and  renovate 
religion,  he  lectured  lately  to  Lord  Harrowby,  Dean 
Payne  Smith,  and  other  kindred  souls,  upon  the  theory 
of  causation  !  And  what  a  consolation  to  us,  who  are  so 
perpetually  being  taunted  with  our  known  inaptitude  for 
abstruse  reasoning,  if  we  can  find  that  for  this  great 
concern  of  religion,  at  any  rate,  abstruse  reasoning  does 
not  seem  to  be  the  appointed  help,  and  that  as  good  or 
better  a  help, — for,  indeed,  there  can  hardly,  to  judge  by 
the  present  state  of  things,  be  a  worse, — may  be  some- 
thing which  is  in  an  ordinary  man's  power ! 

For  the  good  of  letters  is,  that  they  require  no  extraor- 
dinary acuteness  such  as  is  required  to  handle  the  theory 
of  causation  like  the  Archbishop  of  York,  or  the  doctrine 
of  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son  like  the  Bishops  of 
Winchester  and  Gloucester.  The  good  of  letters  may  be 
had  without  skill  in  arguing,  or  that  formidable  logical 
apparatus,  not  unlike  a  guillotine,  which  Professor  Huxley 


8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

speaks  of  somewhere  as  the  young  man's  best  companion ; 
— and  so  it  would  be,  no  doubt,  if  all  wisdom  were  come 
at  by  hard  reasoning ;  in  that  case,  all  who  could  not 
manage  this  apparatus  (and  only  a  few  picked  craftsmen 
can  manage  it)  would  be  in  a  pitiable  condition. 

But  the  valuable  thing  in  letters, — that  is,  in  the  ac- 
quainting oneself  with  the  best  which  has  been  thought 
and  said  in  the  world, — is,  as  we  have  often  remarked, 
the  judgment  which  forms  itself  insensibly  in  a  fair  mind 
along  with  fresh  knowledge ;  and  this  judgment  almost 
anyone  with  a  fair  mind,  who  ^\\\\  but  trouble  himself  to 
try  and  make  acquaintance  with  the  best  which  has  been 
thought  and  uttered  in  the  world,  may,  if  he  is  lucky, 
hope  to  attain  to.  For  this  judgment  comes  almost  of 
itself ;  and  what  it  displaces  it  displaces  easily  and  natu- 
rally, and  without  any  turmoil  of  controversial  reasonings. 
The  thing  comes  to  look  differently  to  us,  as  we  look  at 
it  by  the  light  of  fresh  knowledge.  We  are  not  beaten 
from  our  old  opinion  by  logic,  we  are  not  driven  off  our 
ground ; — our  ground  itself  changes  with  us. 

Far  more  of  our  mistakes  come  from  want  of  fresh 
knowledge  than  from  want  of  correct  reasoning;  and, 
therefore,  letters  meet  a  greater  want  in  us  than  does 
logic.  The  idea  of  a  triangle  is  a  definite  and  ascertained 
thing,  and  to  deduce  the  properties  of  a  triangle  from  it 


INTRODUCTION. 


is  an  affair  of  reasoning.  There  are  heads  unapt  for  this 
sort  of  work,  and  some  of  the  blundenng  to  be  found  in 
the  world  is  from  this  cause.  But  how  far  more  of  the 
blundering  to  be  found  in  the  world  comes  from  people 
fancying  that  some  idea  is  a  definite  and  ascertained 
thing,  like  the  idea  of  a  triangle,  when  it  is  not ;  and  pro- 
ceeding to  deduce  properties  from  it,  and  to  do  battle 
about  them,  when  their  first  start  was  a  mistake  !  And 
how  liable  are  people  with  a  talent  for  hard,  abstruse 
reasoning,  to  be  tempted  to  this  mistake  !  And  what 
can  clear  up  such  a  mistake  except  a  wide  and  familiar 
acquaintance  with  the  human  spirit  and  its  productions, 
showing  how  ideas  and  terms  arose,  and  what  is  their 
character?  and  this  is  letters  and  history,  not  logic. 

So  that  minds  with  small  aptitude  for  abstruse  reason- 
ing may  yet,  through  letters,  gain  some  hold  on  sound 
judgment  and  useful  knowledge,  and  may  even  clear  up 
blunders  committed,  out  of  their  very  excess  of  talent,  by 
the  athletes  of  logic. 


lo  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER    I. 


RELIGION    GIVEN. 


We  have  said  elsewhere  ^  how  much  it  has  contributed 
to  the  misunderstanding  of  St.  Paul,  that  terms  \-{k&  grace, 
new  birth,  justification, — which  he  used  in  a  fluid  and 
passing  way,  as  men  use  terms  in  common  discourse  or  in 
eloquence  and  poetry,  to  describe  approximately,  but 
only  approximately,  what  they  have  present  before  their 
mind,  but  do  not  profess  that  their  mind  does  or  can  grasp 
exactly  or  adequately, — that  such  terms  people  have 
blunderingly  taken  in  a  fixed  and  rigid  manner,  as  if  they 
were  symbols  with  as  definite  and  fully  grasped  a  meaning 
as  the  names  liiie  or  angle,  and  proceeded  to  use  them  on 
this  supposition  ;  terms,  in  short,  which  with  St.  Paul 
are  literary  terms,  theologians  have  employed  as  if  they 
were  scientific  terms. 

But  if  one  desires  to  deal  with  this  mistake  thoroughly, 
one  must  observe  it  in  that  supreme  term  with  which 
*  Ciilttire  and  Anar-chy^^.  178. 


RELIGION  GIVEN. 


religion  is  filled, — the  term  God.  The  seemingly  incu- 
rable ambiguity  in  the  mode  of  employing  this  word  is  at 
the  root  of  all  our  religious  differences  and  difficulties. 
People  use  it  as  if  it  stood  for  a  perfectly  definite  and 
ascertained  idea,  from  which  we  might,  without  more 
ado,  extract  propositions  and  draw  inferences,  just  as  we 
should  from  any  other  definite  and  ascertained  idea.  For 
instance,  I  open  a  book  which  controverts  what  its 
author  thinks  dangerous  views  about  religion,  and  I  read: 
*  Our  sense  of  morality  tells  us  so-and-so ;  our  sense  of 
God,  on  the  other  hand,  tells  us  so-and-so.'  And  again, 
'■  the  impulse  in  man  to  seek  God  '  is  distinguished,  as  if 
the  distinction  were  self-evident  and  explained  itself,  from 
*the  impulse  in  man  to  seek  his  highest  perfection.'  Now, 
morality  represents  for  everybody  a  thoroughly  definite 
and  ascertained  idea : — the  idea  of  human  conduct  regu- 
lated in  a  certain  manner.  Everybody,  again,  under- 
stands distinctly  enough  what  is  meant  by  man's  perfec- 
tion : — his  reaching  the  best  which  his  powers  and  cir- 
cumstances allow  him  to  reach.  And  the  word  *  God '  is 
used,  in  connection  with  both  these  words,  morality  and 
perfection,  as  if  it  stood  for  just  as  definite  and  ascer- 
tained an  idea  as  they  do  ;  an  idea  drawn  from  experi- 
ence, just  as  the  ideas  are  which  they  stand  for ;  an  idea 
about  which  every  one  was  agreed,  and  from  which  we 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


might  proceed  to  argue  and  to  make  inferences,  with  the 
certainty  that,  as  in  the  case  of  moraHty  and  perfection, 
the  basis  on  which  we  were  going  everyone  knew  and 
granted.  But,  in  truth,  the  word  '  God '  is  used  in  most 
cases, — not  by  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester, 
but  by  mankind  in  general, — as  by  no  means  a  term  of 
science  or  exact  knowledge,  but  a  term  of  poetry  and 
eloquence,  a  term  tJiroivn  out,  so  to  speak,  at  a  not  fully 
grasped  object  of  the  speaker's  consciousness,  a  literary 
term,  in  short ;  and  mankind  mean  different  things  by  it 
as  their  consciousness  differs. 

The  first  question,  then,  is,  how  people  are  using  the 
word  ;  whether  in  this  literary  way,  or  in  the  scientific 
way  of  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester.  The 
second  question  is,  what,  supposing  them  to  use  the  term 
as  one  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  and  to  import  into  it, 
therefore,  a  great  deal  of  their  own  individual  feelings  and 
character,  is  yet  the  common  substratum  of  idea  on  which, 
in  using  it,  they  all  rest.  For  this  will  then  be,  so  far  as 
they  are  concerned,  the  scientific  sense  of  the  word,  the 
sense  in  which  we  can  use  it  for  purposes  of  argument 
and  inference  without  ambiguity.  Is  this  substratum^  at 
any  rate,  coincident  with  the  scientific  idea  of  the 
Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester? — will  then  be  the 
question. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  13 

Strictly  and  formally  the  word  'God,'  we  now  learn  from 
the  philologists,  means,  like  its  kindred  Aryan  words  Thcos^ 
Deiis^  and  Deva^  simply  brilliant.  In  a  certain  narrow 
way,  therefore,  this  is  the  one  exact  and  scientific  sense 
of  the  word.  It  was  long  thought  to  mean  good^  and  so 
Luther  took  it  to  mean  the  best  that  man  knoics  or  can 
know ;  and  in  this  sense,  as  a  matter  of  fact  and  history, 
mankind  constantly  use  the  word.  But  then  there  is  also 
the  scientific  sense  held  by  theologians,  deduced  from  the 
ideas  of  substance,  identity,  causation,  design,  and  so  on; 
but  taught,  they  say,  or  at  least  implied  in  the  Bible,  and 
on  which  all  the  Bible  rests.  According  to  this  scientific 
sense  of  theology,  God  is  a  person,,  the  great  first  cause, 
the  moral  and  intelligent  governor  of  the  universe  j  Jesus 
Christ  consubstantial  with  him ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  a 
person  proceeding  from  the  other  two.  This  is  the  sense 
for  which,  or  for  portions  of  which,  the  Bishops  of  Win- 
chester and  Gloucester  are  so  zealous  to  do  some- 
thing. 

Other  people,  however,  who  fail  to  perceive  the  force  of 
such  a  deduction  from  the  abstract  ideas  above  mentioned, 
who  indeed  think  it  quite  hollow,  but  who  are  told  that 
this  sense  is  in  the  Bible,  and  that  they  must  receive  it 
if  they  receive  the  Bible,  conclude  that  in  that  case  they 
had  better  receive  neither  the  one  nor  the  other.     Some- 


14  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

thing  of  this  sort  it  was,  no  doubt,  which  made  Professor 
Huxley  tell  the  London  School  Board  lately,  that  'if  these 
islands  had  no  religion  at  all,  it  would  not  enter  into  his 
mind  to  introduce  the  religious  idea  by  the  agency  of  the 
Bible.'  Of  such  people  there  are  now  a  great  many;  and 
indeed  there  could  hardly,  for  those  who  value  the  Bible, 
be  a  greater  example  of  the  sacrifices  one  is  sometimes 
called  upon  to  make  for  the  truth,  than  to  find  that, 
for  the  truth  as  held  by  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and 
Gloucester,  if  it  is  the  truth,  one  must  sacrifice  the  alle- 
giance of  so  many  people  to  the  Bible. 

But  surely,  if  there  be  anything  with  which  metaphysics 
have  nothing  to  do,  and  where  a  plain  man,  without  skill 
to  walk  in  the  arduous  paths  of  abstruse  reasoning,  may 
yet  find  himself  at  home,  it  is  religion.  For  the  object 
of  religion  is  conduct ;  and  conduct  is  really,  however 
men  may  overlay  it  with  philosophical  disquisitions,  the 
simplest  thing  in  the  world.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  the 
simplest  thing  in  the  world  as  far  as  understanding  is  con- 
cerned ;  as  regards  doing,  it  is  the  hardest  thing  in  the 
y  world.  Here  is  the  difficulty, — to  do  what  we  very  well 
I  know  ought  to  be  done  ;  and  instead  of  facing  this,  men 
have  searched  out  another  with  which  they  occupy  them- 
selves by  preference, — the  origin  of  what  is  called  the 
moral  sense,  the  genesis  and  physiology  of  conscience, 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  15 

and  so  on.  No  one  denies  that  here,  too,  is  difficulty,  or 
that  the  difficulty  is  a  proper  object  for  the  human 
faculties  to  be  exercised  upon  ;  but  the  difficulty  here  is 
speculative.  It  is  not  the  difficulty  of  religion,  which  is 
a  practical  one ;  and  it  often  tends  to  divert  the  attention 
from  this.  Yet  surely  the  difficulty  of  religion  is  great 
enough  by  itself,  if  men  would  but  consider  it,  to  satisfy 
the  most  voracious  appetite  for  difficulties.  It  extends  to 
rightness  in  the  whole  range  of  what  we  call  conduct ;  in 
three-fourths,  therefore,  at  the  very  lowest  computation, 
of  human  life.  The  only  doubt  is  whether  we  ought  not 
to  make  the  range  of  conduct  wider  still,  and  to  say  it  is 
four-fifths  of  human  life,  or  five-sixths.  But  it  is  better  to 
be  under  the  mark  than  over  it ;  so  let  us  be  content  i^ 
with  reckoning  conduct  as  three-fourths  of  human  Hfe. 

And  to  recognise  in  what  way  conduct  is  this,  let  us 
eschew  all  school-temis,  like  moral  sense,  and  volitional^. 
and  altruistic^  which  philosophers  employ,  and  let  us 
help  ourselves  by  the  most  palpable  and  plain  examples. 
When  the  rich  man  in  the  Bible-parable  says  :  *  Soul, 
thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years  ;  take 
thine  ease,  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry  ! ' — those  goods 
which  he  thus  assigns  as  the  stuff  with  which  human  life  is 
mainly  concerned  (and  so  in  practice  it  really  is), — those 
goods  and  our  dealings  with  them, — our  taking  our  ease. 


i6        •        LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


eating,  drinking,  being  merry, — arc  the  matter  of  conduct^ 
the  range  where  it  is  exercised.  Eating,  drinking,  ease, 
pleasure,  money,  the  intercourse  of  the  sexes,  the  giving 
free  swing  to  one's  temper  and  instincts, — these  are  the 
matters  with  which  conduct  is  concerned,  and  with  which 
all  mankind  know  and  feel  it  to  be  concerned. 

Or  when  Protagoras  points  out  of  what  things  v\^e  are, 
from  childhood  till  we  die,  being  taught  and  admonished, 
•and  says  (but  it  is  lamentable  that  here  we  have  not  at 
hand  Mr.  Jowett,  who  so  excellently  introduces  the  en- 
chanter Plato  and  his  personages,  but  must  use  our  own 
words) :  '  From  the  time  he  can  understand  what  is  said  to 
him,  nurse,  and  mother,  and  teacher,  and  father  too,  are 
bending  their  efforts  to  this  end, — to  make  the  child ^(?^^> 
teaching  and  showing  him,  as  to  everything  he  has  to  do 
or  say,  how  this  is  right  and  that  not  right,  and  this  is 
honourable  and  that  vile,  and  this  is  holy  and  that  unholy, 
and  this  do  and  that  do  not ; ' — Protagoras,  also,  when  he 
says  this,  bears  his  testimony  to  the  scope  and  nature  of 
ionduct^  tells  us  what  conduct  is.  Or,  once  more,  when 
Monsieur  Littre  (and  we  hope  to  make  our  peace  with 
the  Comtists  by  quoting  an  author  of  theirs  in  preference 
to  those  authors  whom  all  the  British  public  is  now 
reading  and  quoting), — when  Monsieur  Littre,  in  a  most 
ingenious  essay  on  the  origin  of  morals,  traces  up,  better, 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  17 

perhaps,  than  any  one  else,  all  our  impulses  into  two 
elementary  instincts,  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  and 
the  reproductive  instinct, — then  we  take  his  theory  and 
we  say,  that  all  the  impulses  which  can  be  conceived  as 
derivable  from  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  in  us  and 
the  reproductive  instinct,  these  terms  being  applied  in 
their  ordinary  sense,  are  the  matter  of  conduct.  It  is 
evident  this  includes,  to  say  no  more,  every  impulse 
relating  to  temper,  every  impulse  relating  to  sensuality  \ 
and  we  all  know  how  much  that  is. 

How  we  deal  with  these  impulses  is  the  matter  of 
conduct^ — how  we  obey,  regulate,  or  restrain  them; — that, 
and  nothing  else.  Not  whether  M.  Littre's  theory  is 
true  or  false ;  for  whether  it  be  true  or  false,  there  the 
impulses  confessedly  now  are,  and  the  business  of  con- 
duct is  to  deal  with  them.  But  it  is  evident,  if  conduct 
deals  with  these,  both  how  important  a  thing  conduct  is, 
and  how  simple  a  thing.  Important,  because  it  covers 
so  large  a  portion  of  human  life,  and  the  portion  common 
to  all  sorts  of  people ;  simple,  because,  though  there 
needs  perpetual  admonition  to  form  conduct,  the 
admonition  is  needed  not  to  determine  what  we  ought 
to  do,  but  to  make  us  do  it. 

And  as  to  this  simplicity,  all  moralists  are  agreed. 
*  Let  any  plain  honest  man,'  says  Bishop  Butler,  '  before 

c 


l8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


he  engages  in  any  course  of  action '  (he  means  action  of 
the  very  kind  we  call  conduct),  '  ask  himself :  Is  this  I  am 
going  about  right  or  is  it  wrong  ?  is  it  good  or  is  it  evil  ? 
I  do  not  in  the  least  doubt  but  that  this  question  would 
be  answered  agreeably  to  truth  and  virtue  by  almost  any 
fair  ma7i  in  almost  any  circumstaiice.^  And  Bishop 
Wilson  says  :  '  Look  up  to  God '  (by  which  he  means 
just  this,  consult  your  conscience,)  '  at  all  times,  and  he 
^vill,  as  in  a  glass,  discover  what  is  fit  to  be  done.'  And 
the  Preacher's  well-known  sentence  is  exactly  to  the 
same  effect  :  '  God  made  man  iipright ;  but  they  have 
sought  out  many  inventions,' — or,  as  it  more  correctly  is, 
'  ma7iy  abstruse  reasonings.^  Let  us  hold  fast  to  this,  and 
we  shall  find  we  have  a  stay  by  the  help  of  which  even 
poor  weak  men,  with  no  pretensions  to  be  logical  athletes, 
may  stand  firmly. 

And  so,  when  we  are  asked,  what  is  the  object  of 
religion  ? — let  us  reply  :  Conduct.  And  when  we  are  asked 
further,  what  is  conduct  ? — let  us  answer :  Thi-ee-fourths  of 
life. 

2. 

And  certainly  we  need  not  go  far  about  to  prove  that 
conduct,  or  'righteousness,'  which  is  the  object  of  religion, 
is  in  a  special  manner  the  object  of  Bible-religion.  The 
word   'righteousness'  is   the  master-word   of  the   Old 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  19 


Testament.  Keep  judgment  and  do  righteousness !  Cease 
to  do  evil,  lear?i  to  do  7a ell  /  these  words  being  taken  in 
their  plainest  sense  of  conduct.  Offer  the  sacrifice,  not 
of  victims  and  ceremonies,  as  the  way  of  the  world  in 
religion  then  was,  but :  Offer  the  sacrifice  of  righ- 
teousness !  The  great  concern  of  the  New  Testament  is 
likewise  righteousness,  but  righteousness  reached  through 
particular  means,  righteousness  by  the  means  of  Jesus 
Christ.  A  sentence  which  sums  up  the  New  Testament,  n^ 
and  assigns  the  ground  whereon  the  Christian  Church 
stands,  is,  as  we  have  elsewhere  said,^  this  :  Let  every  o?ie 
that  na77ieth  the  name  of  Christ  depart  from  iniquity  !  If 
we  are  to  take  a  sentence  which  in  like  manner  sums  up 
the  Old  Testament,  such  a  sentence  is  this  :  O  ye  that 
love  the  Eternal^  see  that  ye  hate  the  thing  which  is  evil!  to 
him  that  ordereth  his  cofiversation  right  shall  he  shown  the 
salvation  of  God. 

But  instantly  there  will  be  raised  the  objection  that 
this  is  morality,  not  religion  ;  morality,  ethics,  conduct, 
being  by  many  people,  and  above  all  by  theologians, 
carefully  contra-distinguished  from  religion,  which  is  sup- 
posed in  some  special  way  to  be  connected  with  proposi- 
tions about  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son,  like  those 

'  Si.  Paid  and  Protestantism,^.  159. 
c  2 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


for  which  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester 
want  to  do  something,  or  propositions  about  the  person- 
ality of  God,  or  about  election  or  justification.  Religion, 
however,  means  simply  either  a  binding  to  righteousness, 
or  else  a  serious  attending  to  righteousness  and  dwelling 
upon  it.  Which  of  these  two  it  most  nearly  means, 
depends  upon  the  view  we  take  of  the  word's  derivation ; 
but  it  means  one  of  them,  and  they  are  really  much  the 
same.  And  the  antithesis  between  ethical  and  religious  is 
thus  quite  a  false  one.  Ethical  means  p7'actical,  it  relates 
to  practice  or  conduct  passing  into  habit  or  disposition. 
Religious  also  means  practical^  but  practical  in  a  still 
higher  degree ;  and  the  right  antithesis  to  both  ethical 
and  religious,  is  the  same  as  the  right  antithesis  to 
practical :  namely,  theoretical. 

Now,  the  propositions  of  the  Bishops  of  Winchester 
and  Gloucester  are  theoretical,  and  they  therefore  are 
very  properly  opposed  to  propositions  which  are  moral 
or  ethical ;  but  they  are  with  equal  propriety  opposed  to 
propositions  which  are  religious.  They  differ  in  kind 
from  what  is  religious,  while  what  is  ethical  agrees  in 
kind  with  it.  But  is  there,  therefore,  no  difference  between 
what  is  ethical,  or  morality,  and  religion  ?  There  is  a 
difference  ;  a  difference  of  degree.  Religion,  if  we  fol- 
low the  intention  of  human  thought  and  human  language 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  21 

in  the  use  of  the  word,  is  ethics  heightened,  enkindled, 
lit  lip  by  feeling ;  the  passage  from  morality  to  religion  is 
made  when  to  morality  is  applied  emotion.  And  the 
true  meaning  of  religion  is  thus  not  simply  morality,  but 
vwrality  touched  by  emotion.  And  this  new  elevation  and 
inspiration  of  morality  is  well  marked  by  the  word 
*  righteousness,'  Conduct  is  the  word  of  common  life, 
morality  is  the  word  of  philosophical  disquisition, 
righteousness  is  the  word  of  religion. 

Some  people,  indeed,  are  for  calling  all  high  thought 
and  feeling  by  the  name  of  religion  ;  according  to  that 
saying  of  Goethe  :  '  He  who  has  art  and  science,  has 
also  religion.'  But  let  us  use  words  as  mankind  generally 
use  them.  We  may  call  art  and  science  touched  by 
emotion  religion,  if  we  will ;  as  we  may  make  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation,  into  which  M.  Littre  traces  up  all  our 
private  affections,  include  the  perfecting  ourselves  by  the 
study  of  what  is  beautiful  in  art ;  and  the  reproductive 
instinct,  into  which  he  traces  up  all  our  social  affections, 
include  the  perfecting  mankind  by  poHtical  science. 
But  men  have  not  yet  got  to  that  stage,  when  we  think 
much  of  either  their  private  or  their  social  affections  at 
all,  except  as  exercising  themselves  in  conduct ;  neither 
do  we  yet  think  of  religion  as  othenvise  exercising  itself. 
When    mankind   speak   of   religion,    they  have   before 


/ 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


their  mind  an  activity  engaged,  not  with  the  whole 
of  life,  but  with  that  three-fourths  of  life  which  is  conduct. 
This  is  wide  enough  range  for  one  word,  surely  ;  but  at 
any  rate,  let  us  at  present  limit  ourselves  as  mankind  do. 
And  if  some  one  now  asks  :  But  what  is  this  applica- 
tion of  emotion  to  morality,  and  by  what  marks  may  we 
knov/  it? — we  can  quite  easily  satisfy  him  ;  not,  indeed, 
by  any  disquisition  of  our  own,  but  in  a  much  better  way, 
by  examples.  '  By  the  dispensation  of  Providence  to 
mankind,'  says  Quintilian,  'goodness  gives  men  most 
pleasure.'  ^  That  is  morality.  '  The  path  of  the  just  is  as 
the  shining  light  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the 
perfect  day.'  That  is  morality  touched  with  emotion,  or 
religion.  '  Hold  off  from  sensuality,'  says  Cicero  ;  '■  for, 
if  you  have  given  yourself  up  to  it,  you  will  find  yourself 
unable  to  think  of  anything  else.'  ^  That  is  morality. 
'Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,'  says  Jesus  Christ ;  'for  they 
shall  see  God.'  That  is  religion.  '  We  all  want  to  live 
honestly,  but  cannot,' says  the  Greek  maxim-maker."^  That 
is  morality.  '  O  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver 
me  from  the  body  of  this  death  ! '  says  St.  Paul.     That  is 

* '  Dedit  hoc  Providentia  hominibus  munus,  ut  honesta  magis 
juvarent. 

^  Sis  a  venereis  amoribus  aversus  ;  quibus  si  te  dedideris,  non 
aliud  quidquam  possis  cogitare  quam  illud  quod  diligis. 

^  Q^Aofiev  KaAws  ('ov  navr^s,  dAA'  oh  Swd/xeOa. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  23 

religion.  '  Would  thoiiwertof  as  good  conversation  in  deed 
as  in  word  ! '  is  morality.^  '  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto 
me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  Heaven, 
but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in 
Heaven,'  is  religion,  '■  Live  as  you  were  meant  to  live  ! ' 
is  morahty.^     '  Lay  hold  on  eternal  life  ! '  is  religion. 

Or  we  may  take  the  contrast  within  the  bounds  of 
the  Bible  itself.  'Love  not  sleep,  lest  thou  come  to 
poverty,'  is  morality  ;  '  My  meat  is  to  do  the  will  of  him 
that  sent  me,  and  to  finish  his  work,'  is  religion.  Or  we 
may  even  observe  a  third  stage  between  these  two  stages, 
which  shows  to  us  the  transition  from  one  to  the  other. 
'  If  thou  givest  thy  soul  the  desires  that  please  her,  she 
will  make  thee  a  laughing-stock  to  thine  enemies ; ' — that 
is  morality.  *  He  that  resisteth  pleasure  crowneth  his 
life ; ' — that  is  morality  with  the  tone  heightened,  passing, 
or  trying  to  pass,  into  religion.  '  Flesh  and  blood 
cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God  ; ' — there  the  passage 
is  made,  and  we  have  religion.  Our  religious  examples 
are  here  all  taken  from  the  Bible,  and  from  the  Bible  such 
examples  can  best  be  taken,  but  we  might  also  find  them 
elsewhere.  '  Oh  that  my  lot  might  lead  me  in  the  path 
of  holy  innocence  of  thought  and  deed,  the  path  which 
august  laws  ordain,  laws  which  in  the  highest  heaven  had 

'  EfS'  ^aQa  cruxppwv  tpya  rots  \6yois  taa.         '^  TJqaov  kojo.  (pvcriv. 


[^ 


24  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


their  birth,  neither  did  the  race  of  mortal  man  beget  them, 
nor  shall  oblivion  ever  put  them  to  sleep  ;  the  power  of 
God  is  mighty  in  them,  and  groweth  not  old  ! '  That  is 
from  Sophocles,  but  it  is  as  much  religion  as  any  of  the 
things  which  we  have  quoted  as  religious.  Like  them,  it 
is  not  the  mere  enjoining  of  conduct,  but  it  is  this  en- 
joining touched,  strengthened,  and  almost  transformed 
by  the  addition  of  feeling. 

So  what  is  meant  by  the  application  of  emotion  to 
morality  has  now,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  been  made  clear.  The 
next  question  will,  I  suppose,  be  :  But  how  does  one  get 
the  application  made  ?  Why,  how  does  one  get  to  feel 
much  about  any  matter  whatever  ?  By  dwelling  upon  it, 
by  staying  our  thoughts  upon  it,  by  having  it  perpetually  in 
our  mind.  The  very  words  mmd^  7?iemo?'y,  remain,  come, 
probably,  all  from  the  same  root,  from  the  notion  of 
stajdng,  attending.  Possibly  even  the  word  ma?i  comes 
from  the  same ;  so  entirely  does  the  idea  of  humanity, 
of  intelligence,  of  looking  before  and  after,  of  raising 
oneself  out  of  the  flux  of  things,  rest  upon  the  idea  of 
steadying  oneself,  concentrating  oneself,  making  order  in 
the  chaos  of  one's  impressions,  by  attending  to  one  impres- 
sion rather  than  the  other.  The  rules  of  conduct,  of 
morality,  were  themselves,  philosophers  suppose,  reached 
in  this  way  ; — the  notion  of  a  whole  self  as  opposed  to  a 


RELIGION  GIVEN. 


partial  self,  a  best  self  to  an  inferior,  to  a  momentary  self  a 
permanent  self  requiring  the  restraint  of  impulses  a  man 
would  naturally  have  indulged  ; — because,  by  attending Xo. 
his  life,  man  found  it  had  a  scope  beyond  the  wants  of  the 
present  moment.  Suppose  it  was  so  ;  then  the  first  man 
who,  as  '  a  being,'  comparatively,  '  of  a  large  discourse, 
looking  before  and  after,'  controlled  the  native,  instanta- 
neous, mechanical  impulses  of  the  instinct  of  self-preser- 
vation, controlled  the  native,  instantaneous,  mechanical 
impulses  of  the  reproductive  instinct,  had  morality  re- 
vealed to  him. 

But  there  is  a  long  way  from  this  to  that  habitual 
dwelHng  on  the  rules  thus  reached,  that  constant  turning 
them  over  in  the  mind,  that  near  and  lively  experimental 
sense  of  their  beneficence,  which  communicates  emotion  to 
our  thought  of  them,  and  thus  incalculably  heightens  their 
power.  And  the  more  mankind  attended  to  the  claims 
of  that  part  of  our  nature  which  does  not  belong  to  con- 
duct, properly  so  called,  or  to  morality  (and  we  have  seen 
that,  after  all,  about  one-fourth  of  our  nature  is  in  this 
case),  the  more  they  would  have  distractions  to  take  off 
their  thoughts  from  those  moral  conclusions  which  all 
races  of  men,  one  may  say,  seem  to  have  reached,  and  to 
prevent  these  moral  conclusions  from  being  quickened  by 
emotion,  and  thus  becoming  religious. 


LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 


3- 

Only  with  one  people, — the  people  from  whom  we  get 
the  Bible, — these  distractions  did  not  happen. 

The  Old  Testament,  I  suppose  nobody  will  deny,  is  filled 
with  the  word  and  thought  of  righteousness.  '  In  the 
way  of  righteousness  is  life,  and  in  the  pathway  thereof 
is  no  death  ; '  '  Righteousness  tendeth  to  life  ; '  '  The 
wicked  man  troubleth  his  own  flesh  ; '  '  The  way  of  trans- 
gressors is  hard ; ' — nobody  will  deny  that  those  texts 
may  stand  for  the  fundamental  and  ever-recurring  idea  of 
the  Old  Testament.  No  people  ever  felt  so  strongly  as 
the  people  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Hebrew  people, 
that  conduct  is  three-fourths  of  our  life  and  its  largest 
concern  ;  no  people  ever  felt  so  strongly  that  succeeding, 
going  right,  hitting  the  mark  in  this  great  concern,  was 
the  way  of  peace,  the  highest  possible  satisfaction.  '  He 
that  keepeth  the  law,  happy  is  he  ;  its  ways  are  ways  of 
pleasantness,  and  all  its  paths  are  peace ;  if  thou  hadst 
walked  in  its  ways,  thou  shouldst  have  dwelt  in  peace  for 
ever  I '  Jeshunm,  one  of  the  ideal  names  of  their  race,  is 
the  upj'ight ;  Israel,  the  other  and  greater,  is  the  wi-estler 
with  God,  he  who  has  known  the  contention  and  strain 
it  costs  to  stand  upright.  That  mysterious  personage  by 
whom  their  history  first  touches  the  hill  of  Sion,  is  Mel- 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  27 


chisedek,  the  righteous  king ;  their  holy  city,  Jerusalem, 
is  the  foundation,  or  vision,  or  inheritance,  of  that  which 
righteousness  achieves,— /^^r^.  The  law  of  righteous- 
ness was  such  an  object  of  attention  to  them,  that  its 
words  were  to  '  be  in  their  heart,  and  thou  shalt  teach 
them  diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them 
when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest 
by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou 
risest  up.'  To  keep  them  ever  in  mind,  they  wore  them, 
went  about  with  them,  made  talismans  of  them  :  '  Bind 
them  upon  thy  fingers,  bind  them  about  thy  neck  ;  write 
them  upon  the  table  of  thine  heart ! '  '  Take  fast  hold  of 
her,'  they  said  of  the  doctrine  of  conduct,  or  righteous- 
ness, 'let  her  not  go  !  keep  her,  for  she  is  thy  life/' 

People  who  thus  spoke  of  righteousness  could  not  but 
have  had  their  minds  long  and  deeply  engaged  with  it ; 
much  more  than  the  generality  of  mankind,  who  have 
nevertheless,  as  we  saw,  got  as  far  as  the  notion  of 
morals  or  conduct.  And,  if  they  were  so  deeply  attentive 
to  it,  one  thing  could  not  fail  to  strike  them.  It  is  this  : 
the  very  great  part  in  righteousness  which  belongs,  we 
may  say,  to  7iot  ourselves.  In  the  first  place,  we  did  not 
make  ourselves,  or  our  nature,  or  conduct  as  the  object  of 
three-fourths  of  that  nature  ;  we  did  not  provide  that 
happiness  should  follow  conduct,  as  it  undeniably  does  ; 


28  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

that  the  sense  of  succeeding,  going  right,  hitting  the 
mark,  in  conduct,  should  give  satisfaction,  and  a  very  high 
satisfaction,  just  as  really  as  the  sense  of  doing  well  in 
his  work  gives  pleasure  to  a  poet  or  painter,  or  accom- 
plishing what  he  tries  gives  pleasure  to  a  man  who  is 
learning  to  ride  or  shoot ;  or  as  satisfying  his  hunger,  also, 
gives  pleasure  to  a  man  who  is  hungry. 

All  this  we  did  not  make ;  and,  in  the  next  place,  our 
dealing  with  it  at  all,  when  it  is  made,  is  not  wholly,  or 
even  nearly  wholly,  in  our  own  power.  Our  conduct  is 
capable,  irrespective  of  what  we  can  ourselves  certainly 
answer  for,  of  almost  infinitely  different  degrees  of  force 
and  energy  in  the  performance  of  it,  of  lucidity  and 
vividness  in  the  perception  of  it,  of  fulness  in  the  satis- 
faction from  it ;  and  these  degrees  may  vaiy  from  day 
to  day,  and  quite  incalculably.  Facilities  and  felicities, — 
whence  do  they  come  ?  suggestions  and  stimulations, — 
where  do  they  tend  ?  hardly  a  day  passes  but  we  have 
some  experience  of  them.  And  so  Henry  More  was 
led  to  say  '  that  there  was  something  about  us  that  knew 
better,  often,  what  we  would  be  at  than  we  ourselves.* 
For  instance :  everyone  can  understand  how  health  and 
freedom  from  pain  may  give  energy  for  conduct,  and 
how  a  neuralgia,  suppose,  may  diminish  it ;  it  does  not 
depend    on    ourselves,    indeed,   whether   we    have    the 


RELIGION  GIVEN. 


neuralgia  or  not,  but  we  can  understand  its  impairing 
our  spirit.  But  the  strange  thing  is,  that  with  the  same 
neuralgia  we  may  find  ourselves  one  day  without  spirit 
and  energy  for  conduct,  and  another  day  with  them.  So 
that  we  may  most  truly  say  :  '  Left  to  ourselves,  we  sink 
and  perish  ;  visited,  we  lift  up  our  heads  and  live.'  ^  And 
we  may  well  give  ourselves,  in  grateful  and  devout  self- 
surrender,  to  that  by  which  we  are  thus  visited.  So  much 
is  there  incalculable,  so  much  that  belongs  to  notou7'selves^ 
in  conduct ;  and  the  more  we  attend  to  conduct,  and  the 
more  we  value  it,  the  more  we  shall  feel  this. 

The  not  ourselves,  which  is  in  us  and  in  the  world  round 
us,  has  almost  everywhere,  as  far  as  we  can  see,  struck 
the  minds  of  men  as  they  awoke  to  consciousness,  and 
has  inspired  them  with  awe.  Everyone  knows  how  the 
mighty  natural  objects  which  most  took  their  regards 
became  the  objects  to  which  this  awe  addressed  itself. 
Our  very  word  God  is  a  reminiscence  of  these  times,  when 
men  invoked  '  The  Brilliant  on  high,'  stihlime  hoc  candefis 
quod  invocent  otnnes  Jovem,  as  the  power  representing  to 
them  that  which  transcended  the  limits  of  their  narrow 
selves,  and  that  by  which  they  lived  and  moved  and  had 
their  being.  Everyone  knows  of  what  differences  of  ope- 
ration men's   dealing  with   this  power  has  in  different 

*  Relicti  mergimur  et  perimus,  visitati  vero  eiigimur  et  vivimus. 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


places  and  times  shown  itself  capable  ;  how  here  they 
have  been  moved  by  the  not  ourseh'cs  to  a  cruel  terror, 
there  to  a  timid  religiosity,  there  again  to  a  play  of  imagina- 
tion ;  almost  always,  however,  connecting  with  it,  by  some 
string  or  other,  conduct. 

But  we  are  not  writing  a  history  of  religion ;  we  are 
only  tracing  its  effect  on  the  language  of  the  men  from 
whom  we  get  the  Bible.  At  the  time  they  produced  those 
documents  which  give  to  the  Old  Testament  its  power 
and  true  character,  the  not  oiiiselves  which  weighed  upon 
the  mind  of  Israel,  and  engaged  its  awe,  was  the  not  our- 
selves by  w^hich  we  get  the  sense  for  rigJiteonsness  and 
whence  we  find  the  help  to  do  right.  This  conception  was 
indubitably  what  lay  at  the  bottom  of  that  remarkable 
change  which  under  Moses,  at  a  certain  stage  of  their 
religious  history,  befell  their  mode  of  naming  God  ;  this 
was  what  they  intended  in  that  name,  which  we  wrongly 
convey  either  without  translation,  hy  Jehova/i,  which  gives 
us  the  notion  of  a  mere  mythological  deity,  or  by  a  wrong 
translation.  Lord,  which  gives  us  the  notion  of  a  magnified 
and  non-natural  man.  The  name  they  used  was :  The 
Eternal. 

Philosophers  dispute  whether  moral  ideas,  as  they  call 
them,  the  simplest  ideas  of  conduct  and  righteousness 
which  now  seem  instinctive,  did  not  all  grow,  were  not 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  31 


once  inchoate,  embryo,  dubious,  unformed  ;  *  that  may 
have  been  so;  the  question  is  an  interesting  one  for 
science.  But  the  interesting  question  for  conduct  is 
whether  those  ideas  are  unformed  or  formed  now  ;  they 
are  formed  now,  and  they  were  formed  when  the  Hebrews 
named  the  power,  out  of  themselves,  which  pressed 
upon  their  spirit  :  The  Ete7'7ial.  Probably  the  life  of 
Abraham,  the  friend  of  God,  however  imperfectly  the  Bible 
traditions  by  themselves  convey  it  to  us,  was  a  decisive 
step  fonvards  in  the  development  of  these  ideas  of  righ- 
teousness. Probably  this  was  the  moment  when  such 
ideas  became  fixed  and  solid  for  the  Hebrew  people,  and 
marked  it  permanently  off  from  all  others  who  had  not 
made  the  same  step.  But  long  before  the  first  beginnings 
of  recorded  history,  long  before  the  oldest  word  of  Bible 
literature,  these  ideas  must  have  been  at  work ;  we  know  it 
by  the  result,  although  they  may  have  for  a  long  while 
been  but  rudimentary.  In  Israel's  earliest  history  and 
earliest  literature,  under  the  name  of  Eloah,  Elohim,  The 
Mighty^  there  may  have  lain  and  matured,  there  did  lie 
and  mature,  ideas  of  God  more  as  a  moral  power,  more 
as  a  power  connected  above  everything  with  conduct 
and  righteousness,  than  were  entertained  by  other  races  ; 

*  Qu'est-ce-que  la  nature?'    says  Pascal;  ^ pcut-etre  icnc premiere 
coiitwne,  comme  la  coutume  est  une  seconde  nature.' 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


not  only  can  we  judge  by  the  result  that  this  must  have 
been  so,  but  we  can  see  that  it  was  so.  Still  their  name, 
The  Mighty^  does  not  in  itself  involve  any  tme  and  deep 
religious  ideas,  any  more  than  our  name,  The  Brilliant. 
With  The  Eternal  it  is  otherwise.  For  what  did  they 
mean  by  the  Eternal;  the  Eternal  zuhatl  The  Eternal 
hansel  Alas,  these  poor  people  were  not  Archbishops  of 
York.  They  meant  the  Eternal  righteous,  who  loveth 
■righteousness.  They  had  dwelt  upon  the  thought  of  con- 
•duct  and  right  and  wrong,  till  the  not  ourselves  which 
is  in  us  and  all  around  us,  became  to  them  adorable 
t;minently  and  altogether  as  a  power  which  makes  for 
righteousness ;  which  makes  for  it  unchangeably  and 
■eternally,  and  is  therefore  called  The  Eternal.  ./ 

There  is  not  a  particle  of  metaphysics  in  their  use  of 
this  name,  any  more  than  in  their  conception  of  the  Jiot 
ourselves  to  which  they  attached  it.  Both  came  to  them 
not  from  abstruse  reasoning  but  from  experience,  and 
from  experience  in  the  plain  region  of  conduct.  Theolo- 
gians with  metaphysical  heads  render  Israel's  Eternal  by 
the  self -existent,  and  Israel's  7iot  ourselves  by  the  absolute, 
and  attribute  to  Israel  their  own  subtleties.  According 
to  them,  Israel  had  his  head  full  of  the  necessity  of  a  first 
c'ause,  and  therefore  said.  The  Eternal-,  as,  again,  they 
imagine  him  looking  out  into  the  world,  noting  every- 
where the  marks  of  design  and  adaptation  to  his  wants, 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  33 


and  reasoning  out  and  inferring  thence  the  fatherhood  of 
God.  All  these  fancies  come  from  an  excessive  turn  for 
reasoning,  and  a  neglect  of  observing  men's  actual  course 
of  thinking  and  way  of  using  words.  Israel,  at  this  stage 
when  The  Eternal  was  revealed  to  him,  inferred  nothing, 
reasoned  out  nothing  ;  he  felt  and  experienced.  When 
he  begins  to  speculate,  in  the  schools  of  Rabbinism,  he 
quickly  shows  how  much  less  native  talent  than  the 
Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester  he  has  for  this 
perilous  business.  Happily,  when  The  Eternal  was  re- 
vealed to  him,  he  had  not  yet  begun  to  speculate. 

Israel  personified,  indeed,  his  Eternal,  for  he  was 
strongly  moved,  and  an  orator  and  poet.  Maji  never 
knoivs  how  anthropomorphic  he  is,  says  Goethe,  and  so 
man  tends  always  to  represent  everything  under  his  own 
figure.  In  poetry  and  eloquence  man  may  and  must 
follow  this  tendency,  but  in  science  it  often  leads  him 
astray.  Israel,  however,  did  not  scientifically  predicate 
personality  of  God;  he  would  not  even  have  had  a 
notion  what  was  meant  by  it.  He  called  him  the  maker 
of  all  things,  who  gives  drink  to  all  out  of  his  plea- 
sures as  out  of  a  river ;  but  he  was  led  to  this  by  no 
theory  of  a  first  cause.  The  gi-andeur  of  the  spectacle 
given  by  the  world,  the  grandeur  of  the  sense  of  its  all 
being  not  ourselves,  being  above  and  beyond  ourselves 

D 


34  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

and  immeasurably  dwarfing  us,  a  man  of  imagination 
instinctively  personifies  as  a  single  mighty  living  and 
productive  power;  as  Goethe  tells  us  that  the  words 
which  rose  naturally  to  his  lips,  when  he  stood  on  the  top 
of  the  Brocken,  were :  '  Lord,  what  is  man,  that  thou 
minSest  him,  or  the  son  of  man,  that  thou  makest  account 
of  him  ?  '  But  Israel's  confessing  and  extolling  of  this 
power  came  not  even  from  his  imaginative  feeling,  but 
came  first  from  his  gratitude  for  righteousness.  To  one 
who  knows  what  conduct  is,  it  is  a  joy  to  be  alive  ;  and 
the  not  ourselves^  which  by  bringing  forth  for  us  righteous- 
ness makes  our  happiness,  working  in  the  same  sense 
brings  forth  this  glorious  world  to  be  righteous  in.  That 
is  the  notion  at  the  bottom  of  the  Hebrew's  praise  of  a 
Creator;  and  if  we  attend,  we  can  see  this  quite  clearly. 
Wisdom  and  understanding  mean,  for  Israel,  the  love  of 
order,  of  righteousness.  Righteousness,  order,  conduct,  is 
for  him  at  once  the  source  of  all  man's  happiness,  and  at 
the  same  time  the  very  essence  of  The  Eteriial.  The 
great  work  of  the  Eternal  is  the  foundation  of  this  order 
in  man,  the  implanting  in  mankind  of  his  own  love  of 
righteousness,  his  own  spirit,  his  own  wisdom  and  under- 
standing; and  it  is  only  as  a  further  and  natural  working  of 
this  energy  that  Israel  conceives  the  establishment  of  order 
in  the  world,  or  creation.  '  To  depart  from  evil,  thai  is 
understanding  !    Happy  is  the  man  that  findeth  wisdom. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  35 

and  the  man  that  getteth  understanding  !  The  Eternal  by 
wisdom  hath  founded  the  earth,  by  understanding  hath  he 
established  the  heavens ; ' — and  so  the  Bible-writer  passes 
into  the  account  of  creation.  It  all  comes  to  him  from 
the  idea  of  righteousness. 

And  it  is  the  same  with  all  the  language  our  Hebrew 
speaker  uses.  God  is  a  father,  because  the  power  in  and 
around  us  which  makes  for  righteousness  is  indeed  best 
described  by  the  name  of  this  authoritative  but  yet  tender 
and  protecting  relation.  So,  too,  with  the  intense  fear 
and  abhorrence  of  idolatry.  Conduct,  righteousness,  is, 
above  all,  an  inward  motion  and  rule  ;  no  sensible  forms 
can  represent  it,  or  help  us  to  it ;  such  attempts  at  repre- 
sentation can  only  distract  us  from  it.  So,  too,  with  the 
sense  of  the  oneness  of  God.  '  Hear,  O  Israel  !  The 
Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord.'  People  think  that  in  this 
unity  of  God, — this  monotheistic  idea,  as  they  call  it, — 
they  have  certainly  got  metaphysics  at  last.  It  is  nothing 
of  the  kind.  The  monotheistic  idea  of  Israel  is  simply 
seriousness.  There  are,  indeed,  many  aspects  of  the  7iof 
ourselves  ;  but  Israel  regarded  one  aspect  of  it  only,  that 
by  which  it  makes  for  righteousness.  He  had  the  advan- 
tage, to  be  sure,  that  with  this  aspect  three-fourths  of 
human  life  is  concerned.  But  there  are  other  aspects  which 
may  be  set  in  view.     '  Frail  and  striving  mortality,'  says 


36  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

the  elder  Pliny  in  a  noble  passage,  *  mindful  of  its  own 
weakness,  has  distinguished  these  aspects  severally,  so  as 
for  each  man  to  be  able  to  attach  himself  to  the  divine 
by  this  or  that  part,  according  as  he  has  most  need.'* 
That  is  an  apology  for  polytheism,  as  answering  to  man's 
many-sidedness.  But  Israel  felt  that  being  thus  many- 
sided  degenerated  into  an  imaginative  play,  and  bewildered 
what  Israel  recognised  as  our  sole  religious  consciousness, 
— the  consciousness  of  right.  '  I.et  thine  eyelids  look 
right  on,  and  let  thine  eyelids  look  straight  before  thee  ; 
turn  not  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left ;  remove  thy 
•  loot  from  evil  ! ' 

Does  not  Ovid  say,-  in  excuse  for  the  immorality  of  his 
verses,  that  the  sight  and  mention  of  the  gods  themselves, 
— the  rulers  of  human  life, — often  raised  immoral  thoughts  ? 
and  so  the  sight  and  mention  of  all  aspects  of  the  not 
ourselves  must.  Yet  how  tempting  are  many  of  these 
aspects  !  Even  at  this  time  of  day,  the  grave  authorities 
of  the  University  of  Cambridge  are  so  struck  by  one  of 
them,  that  of  pleasure,  life  and  fecundity, — of  the  hominum 

^  Fragilis  et  laboriosa  mortalitas  in  partes  ista  digessit,  infirmi- 
tatis  suae  memor,  ut  portionibus  coleret  quisque,  quo  maxime  indi- 
geret.     Nat.  Hist.,  ii,  5. 
2   Tristia,  ii,  287. 

Quis  locus  est  templis  augustior?  hsec  quoque  vitet 
In  culpam  si  qua  est  ingeniosa  suam. 
See  the  \vhole  passage. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  37 


divomqice  vohiptas,  alma  Ve?ms, — that  they  set  it  publicly 
up  as  an  object  for  their  scholars  to  fix  their  minds  upon, 
and  to  compose  verses  in  honour  of.     That  is  all  very  well 
at  present ;  but  with  this  natural  bent  in  the  authorities  of 
the  University  of  Cambridge,  and  in  the  Indo-European 
race  to  which  they  belong,  where  would  they  be  now  if  it 
had  not  been  for  Israel,  and  the  stern  check  which  Israel 
put  upon  the  glorification  and  divinisation  of  this  natural 
bent  of  mankind,  this  attractive  aspect  of  the  7Jot  ourselves  ? 
Perhaps   going  in  procession,   Vice-Chancellor,   bedels, 
masters,  scholars,  and  all,  in  spite  of  their  Professor  of 
Moral  Philosophy,   to  the  temple  of  Aphrodite  !     Nay, 
and  very  likely  Mr.  Birks  himself,  his  brows  crowned  with 
myrtle  and  scarcely  a  shade  of  melancholy  on  his  counte- 
nance, would  have  been  going  along  with  them !     It  is 
Israel  and  his  seriousness  that  have  saved  the  authorities  of 
the  University  of  Cambridge  from  carrying  their  divinisation 
of  pleasure  to  these  lengths,  or  from  making  more  of  it,  in- 
deed, than  a  mere  passing  intellectual  play;  and  even  this 
play  Israel  would  have  beheld  with  displeasure,  saying  : 
O  turn  away  mine  eyes  lest  they  behold  vanity^  hut  quicken 
Thou  me  in  thy  way  I    So  earnestly  and  exclusively  were 
Israel's  regards  bent  on  one  aspect  of  the  not  ourselves :  its 
aspect  as  a   power  making  for  conduct,  righteousness. 
Israel's  Eternal  wdiS  the  Eternal  which  says  :  '  To  depart  1 
from  evil,  that  is  understanding  !     Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  ', 


38  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


holy  !'  Now,  as  righteousness  is  but  a  heightened  conduct, 
so  hoUness  is  but  a  heightened  righteousness ;  a  more 
finished,  entire,  and  awe-filled  righteousness.  It  was  such 
a  righteousness  which  was  Israel's  ideal ;  and  therefore 
it  was  that  Israel  said,  not  indeed  what  our  Bibles  make 
him  say,  but  this  :  '  Hear,  O  Israel !  The  Eteiiial  is  our 
Gody  The  Eternal  alone' 

And  in  spite  of  his  turn  for  personification,  his  want  of 
a  clear  boundary  line  between  poetry  and  science,  his 
inaptitude  to  express  even  abstract  notions  by  other  than 
highly  concrete  terms, — in  spite  of  these  scientific  disad- 
vantages, or  rather,  perhaps,  because  of  them,  because  he 
had  no  talent  for  abstruse  reasoning  to  lead  him  astray, — 
the  spirit  and  tongue  of  Israel  kept  a  propriety,  a  reserve, 
a  sense  of  the  inadequacy  of  language  in  conveying  man's 
ideas  of  God,  which  contrast  strongly  with  the  licence  of 
affirmation  in  our  Western  theology.  '  The  high  and 
holy  One  that  inhabiteth  eternity,  whose  name  is  holy,'  is 
far  more  proper  and  felicitous  language  than  '  the  moral 
and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  just  because  it 
far  less  attempts  to  be  precise,  but  keeps  to  the  language 
of  poetry  and  does  not  essay  the  language  of  science. 
As  he  had  developed  his  idea  of  God  from  personal  ex- 
perience, Israel  knew  what  we,  who  have  developed  our 
idea  from  his  words  about  it,  so  often  are  ignorant  of : 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  39 


that  his  words  were  but  throivii  out  at  a  vast  object  of 
consciousness,  which  he  could  not  fully  grasp,  and  which 
he  apprehended  clearly  by  one  point  alone, — that  it  made 
for  the  great  concern  of  life,  conduct.  How  little  we  know 
of  it  besides,  how  impenetrable  is  the  course  of  its  ways 
with  us,  how  we  are  baffled  in  our  attempts  to  name  and 
describe  it,  how,  when  we  personify  it  and  call  it  '  the 
moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  we  pre- 
sently find  it  not  to  be  a  person  as  man  conceives  of 
person,  nor  moral  as  man  conceives  of  moral,  nor  intelli- 
gent as  man  conceives  of  intelligent,  nor  a  governor  as 
man  conceives  of  governors, — all  this,  which  scientific 
theology  loses  sight  of,  Israel,  who  had  but  poetry  and 
eloquence,  and  no  system,  and  who  did  not  mind  con- 
tradicting himself,  knew.  '  Is  it  any  pleasure  to  the 
Almighty,  that  thou  art  righteous  ?  '  What  a  blow  to  our 
ideal  of  that  magnified  and  non-natural  man,  '  the  moral 
and  intelligent  Governor  ! '  Say  what  we  can  about  God, 
say  our  best,  we  have  yet,  Israel  knew,  to  add  instantly  : 
*  Lo,  these  are  parts  of  his  ways ;  but  how  little  a  portion 
is  heard  of  him  / '  Yes,  indeed,  Israel  remembered  that, 
far  better  than  our  bishops  do.  '  Canst  thou  by  searching 
find  out  God  ;  canst  thou  find  out  the  perfection  of  the 
Almighty?  It  is  more  high  than  heaven,  what  canst 
thou  do  ?  deeper  than  hell,  what  canst  thou  know  ? ',    ^ 


40  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Will  it  be  said,  experience  might  also  have  shown  to 
Israel  a  not  ourselves  which  did  not  make  for  his  happiness, 
but  rather  made  against  it,  baffled  his  claims  to  it  ?  But 
no  man,  as  we  have  elsewhere  remarked,  who  simply 
follows  his  own  consciousness,  is  aware  of  any  claims^  any 
rights,  whatever;^  what  he  gets  of  good  makes  him  thank- 
ful, what  he  gets  of  ill  seems  to  him  natural.  It  is  true, 
the  not  ourselves  of  which  he  is  thankfully  conscious  he 
inevitably  speaks  of  and  speaks  to  as  a  man;  for  'man  never 
knows  how  anthropomorphic  he  is,'  As  time  proceeds, 
imagination  and  reasoning  keep  working  upon  this  sub- 
structure, and  build  from  it  a  magnified  and  non-natural 
man.  Attention  is  then  drawn,  aftenvards,  to  causes  out- 
side ourselves  which  seem  to  make  for  sin  and  suffering ; 
and  then  either  these  causes  have  to  be  reconciled  by 
some  highly  ingenious  scheme  with  the  magnified  and 
non-natural  man's  power,  or  a  second  magnified  and  non- 
natural  man  has  to  be  supposed,  who  pulls  the  contrary 
way  to  the  first.  So  arise  Satan  and  his  angels.  But  all 
this  is  secondary,  and  comes  much  later ;  Israel,  the 
founder  of  our  religion,  did  not  begin  with  this.  He 
began  with  experience.  He  knew  from  thankful  expe- 
rience the  not  ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness, 
and  knew  how  little  we  know  about  God  besides. 
*   Culture  and  Anarchy,  p.  214. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  \\ 


4- 

The  language  of  the  Bible,  then,  is  literary,  not  scien- 
tific language ;  language  throwji  out  at  an  object  of  con- 
sciousness not  fully  grasped,  which  inspired  emotion. 
Evidently,  if  the  object  be  one  not  fully  to  be  grasped, 
and  one  to  inspire  emotion,  the  language  of  figure  and 
feeling  will  satisfy  us  better  about  it,  will  cover  more  of 
what  we  seek  to  express,  than  the  language  of  literal  fact 
and  science ;  the  language  of  science  about  it  will  be 
below  what  we  feel  to  be  the  truth. 

The  question  however  has  arisen  and  confronts  us  : 
what  was  the  scientific  basis  of  fact  for  this  conscious- 
ness. When  we  have  once  satisfied  ourselves  both  as  to 
the  tentative,  poetic  way  in  which  the  Bible-personages 
used  language,  and  also  as  to  their  having  no  pretensions 
to  metaphysics  at  all,  let  us,  therefore,  when  there  is 
this  question  raised  as  to  the  scientific  account  of  what 
they  had  before  their  minds,  be  content  with  a  very 
unpretending  answer.  And  in  this  way  such  a  phrase 
as  that  which  we  have  formerly  used  concerning  God, 
and  have  been  much  blamed  for  using, — the  phrase, 
namely,  that,  '  for  science,  God  is  simply  the  stream  of 
tendency  by  which  all  things  fulfil  the  law  of  their  bcing^ — 
may  be  allowed,  and   even  prove   useful.     Certainly  it 


42  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


is  inadequate  ;  certainly  it  is  a  less  proper  phrase  than, 
for  instance  :  '  Clouds  and  darkness  are  round  about  hmi, 
righteousness  and  judgment  are  the  habitation  of  his  seat/  * 
But  then  it  is,  in  however  humble  a  degree  and  with  how- 
ever narrow  a  reach,  a  scientific  definition,  which  the 
other  is  not.  The  phrase,  '  A  Personal  First  Cause,  the 
moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  has  also, 
when  applied  to  God.  the  character,  no  doubt,  of  a  scien- 
tific definition ;  but  then  it  goes  far  beyond  what  is  ad- 
mittedly certain  and  verifiable,  which  is  what  we  mean  by 
scientific.  It  attempts  far  too  much ;  if  we  want  here, 
as  we  do  want,  to  have  what  is  admittedly  certain  and 
verifiable,  we  must  content  ourselves  with  very  little.  No 
one  will  say,  that  it  is  admittedly  certain  and  verifiable, 
that  there  is  a  personal  first  cause,  the  moral  and  intelli- 
gent governor  of  the  universe,  whom  we  may  call  God  if 
we  will.  But  that  all  things  seem  to  us  to  have  what  we 
call  a  law  of  their  being,  and  to  tend  to  fulfil  it,  is  certain 

'  It  has  been  urged  that  if  this  personifying  mode  of  expression 
is  more  proper  and  adequate,  it  must  also  be  more  scientifically 
exact.  But  surely  it  must  on  reflexion  appear  that  this  is  by  no 
means  so.  Wordsworth  calls  the  earth  '  the  mighty  mother  of 
mankind,'  and  the  geographers  call  her  *  an  oblate  spheroid ; ' 
Wordsworth's  expression  is  more  proper  and  adequate  to  convey 
what  men  feel  about  the  earth,  but  it  is  not  therefore  the  more 
scientifically  exact. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  43 


and  admitted ;  though  whether  we  will  call  this  God  or 
not,  is  a  matter  of  choice.  Suppose,  however,  we  call  it 
Godj  we  then  give  the  name  of  God  to  a  certain  and 
admitted  reality ;  this,  at  least,  is  an  advantage. 

And  the  notion  of  our  definition  does,  in  flict,  enter 
into  the  term  God,  in  men's  common  use  of  it.  To 
please  God,  to  serve  God,  to  obey  God's  v/ill,  means 
to  follow  a  law  of  things  which  is  found  in  conscience, 
and  which  is  an  indication,  irrespective  of  our  arbitrary 
wish  and  fancy,  of  what  we  ought  to  do.  There  is,  then, 
a  real  power  which  makes  for  righteousness  ;  and  it  is  the 
greatest  of  realities  for  us.  ^  When  Paul  says,  our  business 
is  '  to  serve  the  spirit  of  God,'  '  to  serve  the  living  and 
tme  God;'  and  when  Epictetus  says  :  '  What  do  I  want  ? 
— to  acquaint  myself  with  the  true  order  of  things,  and 
comply  with  it,'  they  both  mean,  so  far,  the  same,  in  that 
they  both  mean  we  should  obey  a  tendency,  which  is  not 
ourselves  but  which  appears  in  our  consciousness,  by 
which  things  fulfil  the  real  law  of  their  being. 

■  '  Prayer,  about  which  so  much  has  of  late  been  said  unadvisedly 
and  ill,  deals  with  this  reality.  All  good  and  beneficial  prayer 
is  in  trath,  however  men  may  describe  it,  at  bottom  nothing  else 
than  an  energy  of  aspiration  towards  the  Eternal  not  ourselves  that 
makes  for  righteousness, — of  aspiration  towards  it, -and  co-operation 
with  it.  Nothing,  therefore,  can  be  more  efficacious,  more  right, 
and  more  real. 


44  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


It  is  true,  the  not  ourselves^  by  which  things  fulfil  the 
real  law  of  their  being,  extends  a  great  deal  beyond  that 
sphere  where  alone  we  usually  think  of  it.  That  is,  a 
man  may  disserve  God,  disobey  indications  not  of  our 
own  making  but  which  appear,  if  we  attend,  in  our  con- 
sciousness,— he  may  disobey,  I  say,  such  indications  of 
the  real  law  of  our  being  in  other  spheres  besides  the 
sphere  of  conduct.  He  does  disobey  them,  when  he  sings 
a  hymn  like  :  My  Jesus  to  know,  and  feel  his  blood  flow, 
or,  indeed,  like  nine-tenths  of  our  hymns,  or  when  he 
frames  and  maintains  a  blundering  and  miserable  con- 
stitution of  society,  as  well  as  when  he  commits  some 
plain  breach  of  the  moral  law.  That  is,  he  may  disobey 
them  in  art  and  science  as  well  as  in  conduct.  But  he 
attends,  and  the  generality  of  men  attend,  only  to  the 
indications  of  a  true  law  of  our  being  as  to  conduct ;  and 
hardly  at  all  to  indications,  though  they  as  really  exist,  of 
a  true  law  of  our  being  on  its  aesthetic  and  intelligential 
side.  The  reason  is,  that  the  moral  side,  though  not 
more  real,  is  so  much  larger ;  taking  in,  as  we  have  said, 
at  least  three-fourths  of  life.  Now,  the  indications  on  this 
moral  side  of  that  tendency,  not  of  our  making,  by  which 
things  fulfil  the  law  of  their  being,  we  do  very  much  mean 
to  denote  and  to  sum  up  when  we  speak  of  the  will  of 
God,  pleasing  God,  serving  God.  Let  us  keep  firm  footing 
on  this  basis  of  plain  fact,  narrow  though  it  may  be. 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  45 

To  feel  that  one  is  fulfilling  in  any  way  the  law  of  one's 
being,  that  one  is  succeeding  and  hitting  the  mark,  brings 
us,  we  know,  happiness ;  to  feel  this  in  regard  to  so  great 
a  thing  as  conduct,  brings,  of  course,  happiness  propor- 
tionate to  the  thing's  greatness.  We  have  already  had 
Quintilian's  witness,  how  right  conduct  gives  joy.  Who 
could  value  knowledge  more  than_G^tlie  ?  but  he  marks 
it  as  being  without  question  a  lesser  source  of  joy  than 
conduct;  conduct  he  ranks  with  health  as  beyond  all 
compare  primary.  '  Nothing,  after  health  and  virtue^  he 
says,  'can  give  so  much  satisfaction  as  learning  and 
knowing.'  Nay,  and  Bishop  Butler,  at  the  view  of  the 
happiness  from  conduct,  breaks  free  from  all  that  hesitancy 
and  depression  which  so  commonly  hangs  on  his  mas- 
terly thinking.  '  Self-love,  methinks,  should  be  alarmed  ! 
May  she  not  pass  over  greater  pleasures  than  those  she  is 
so  wholly  taken  up  with  ? '  And  Bishop  Wilson,  always 
hitting  the  right  nail  on  the  head  in  matters  of  this  sort, 
remarks  that,  '  if  it  were  not  for  the  practical  difficulties 
attending  it,  virtue  ivotild  hardly  be  distinguishable  from  a 
kind  of  sensuality.''  The  practical  difficulties  are  indeed 
exceeding  great  j  plain  as  is  the  course,  and  high  the 
prize,  we  all  find  ourselves  daily  led  to  say  with  the 
Imitation  :  '  Would  that  for  one  single  day  we  had  lived 
in  this  world  as  we  ought ! '  Yet  the  course  is  so  evi- 
dently plain,  and  the  prize  so  high,  that  the  same  Tmita- 


46  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


tio?i  cries  out  presently :  'If  a  man  would  but  take  notice, 
what  peace  he  brings  to  himself,  and  what  joy  to  others, 
merely  by  managing  himself  right ! '  And  for  such  happi- 
ness, since  certainly  we  ourselves  did  not  make  it,  we 
instinctively  feel  grateful ;  according  to  that  remark  of  one 
of  the  wholesomest  and  truest  of  moralists,  Barrow  :  '  He 
is  not  a  man,  who  doth  not  delight  to  make  some  returns 
thither  whence  he  hath  found  great  kindness.'  And  this 
sense  of  gratitude,  again,  is  itself  an  addition  to  our 
happiness !  So  strong,  altogether,  is  the  witness  and  sanc- 
tion happiness  gives  to  going  right  in  conduct,  to  fulfilling, 
so  far  as  conduct  is  concerned,  the  law  indicated  to  us  of 
our  being.  Now,  there  can  be  no  sanction  to  compare,  for 
force,  with  the  strong  sanction  of  happiness,  if  it  is  true 
what  Bishop  Butler,  who  is  here  but  the  mouthpiece  of 
humanity  itself,  says  so  irresistibly :  '  It  is  manifest  that 
nothing  can  be  of  consequence  to  mankind,  or  any  crea- 
ture, but  happiness.'  But  we  English  are  taunted  with 
our  proneness  to  a  low  eudsemonism,  and  an  Anglican 
bishop  may  perhaps  be  a  suspected  witness ;  let  us  call, 
then,  a  glorious  father  of  the  Catholic  Church,  the  great 
Augustine  himself.  Says  St.  Augustine:  'Act  we  viust 
in  pursuance  of  what  gives  us  most  delight ;  quod aviplius 
nos  delectat,  secimdum  id  operemur  necesse  est.' 

And  now  let  us  see  how  exactly  Israel's  perceptions 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  47 


about  God  follow  and  confirm  this  simple  line,  which  we 
have  here  reached  quite  independently.  First :  '  It  is 
joy  to  the  just  to  do  judgment'  Then  :  '  It  becometh 
well  the  just  to  be  thaiiJzfuL'  Finally  :  '  K pleasant  thing; 
it  is  to  be  thankful.'  What  can  be  simpler  than  this,  and 
at  the  same  time  more  solid  ?  But  again :  '  There  is 
nothing  sweeter  than  to  take  heed  unto  the  commandments, 
of  the  Eter7ial'  And  then  :  '  Thou  art  my  portion,  O 
Eternal!  at  midnight  will  I  rise  to  give  thanks  unto  thee 
because  of  thy  righteous  judgments.'  And  lastly:  'O 
praise  the  Eternal,  for  it  is  a  good  thing  to  sing  praises 
unto  onr  God  P  Why,  these  are  the  very  same  pro- 
positions as  the  preceding,  only  with  a  power  and  depth 
of  emotion  added  !  Emotion  has  been  applied  to 
morality. 

God  is  here  really,  at  bottom,  a  deeply  moved  way  of 
^2.ymg  conduct  ox  righteousness.  *  Trust  in  God'  is  trust 
in  the  law  of  conduct;  'delight  in  the EternaP  is,  in  a 
deeply  moved  way  of  expression,  the  happiness  we  all  feel 
to  spring  from  conduct.  Attending  to  conduct,  to  judg- 
ment, makes  the  attender  feel  that  it  is  joy  to  do  it; 
attending  to  it  more  still,  makes  him  feel  that  it  is  the 
commandment  of  the  Eternal,  and  that  the  joy  got 
from  it  is  joy  got  from  fulfilling  the  commandment 
of  the    Eternal.       The    thankfulness    for   this    joy  is 


48  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


thankfulness  to  the  Eternal ;  and  to  the  Eternal,  again, 
is  due  that  further  joy  which  comes  from  this  thank- 
fulness. '  The  fear  of  the  Eternal,  that  is  wisdom ;  and 
to  depart  from  evil,  that  is  understanding.'  '  The  fear 
of  the  Etcrnar  and  '  To  depai't  from  evil'  here  mean,  and 
are  put  to  mean,  and  by  the  very  laws  of  Hebrew 
composition  which  make  the  second  phrase  in  a  parallel- 
ism repeat  the  first  in  other  words,  they  must  mean,  just 
the  same  thing.  Yet  what  man  of  soul,  after  he  had  once 
risen  to  feel  that  to  depart  from  evil  was  to  walk  in  awful 
observance  of  an  enduring  clue,  within  us  and  without  us, 
which  leads  to  happiness,  but  would  prefer  to  say,  instead 
of  '  to  depart  from  evil,'  '  the  fear  of  the  Eternal?  ' 

Henceforth,  then,  Israel  transferred  to  this  Eternal  all 
his  obligations.  Instead  of  saying  :  'Whoso  keepeth  the 
commandment  keepeth  his  own  soul,'  he  rather  said,  'My 
soul,  wait  thou  still  upon  God^  for  of  him  cometh  my  sal- 
vation ! '  Instead  of  saying :  '  Bind  them  (the  laws  of 
righteousness)  continually  upon  thine  heart,  and  tie  them 
about  thy  neck  ! '  he  rather  said,  '  Have  I  not  remembered 
Thee  on  my  bed,  and  thought  of  Thee  when  I  was 
waking? '  The  obligation  of  a  grateful  and  devout  self- 
surrender  to  the  Eternal  replaced  all  sense  of  obligation 
to  one's  own  better  self,  one's  own  permanent  welfare. 
The  moralist's  rule  :  '  Take  thought  for  your  permanent, 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  49 

not  your  momentary,  well-being,'  became  now  :  '  Honour 
the  Eternal,  not  doing  thine  own  ways,  nor  finding  thine 
own  pleasure,  nor  speaking  thine  own  words.'  That  is, 
with  Israel  religion  replaced  morality. 

It  is  true,  out  of  the  humble  yet  divine  ground  of 
attention  to  conduct,  of  care  for  what  in  conduct  is  right 
and  wrong,  grew  moraHty  and  religion  both;  but,  from  the 
time  the  soul  felt  the  motive  of  religion,  it  dropped  and 
could  not  but  drop  the  other.  And  the  motive  of  doingX 
right,  to  a  sincere  soul,  is  now  really  no  longer  his  own 
welfare,  but  to  please  God;  and  it  bewilders  his  con- 
sciousness if  you  tell  him  that  he  does  right  out  of  self- 
love.  So  that  as  we  have  said  that  the  first  man  who,  as 
'  a  being  of  a  large  discourse,  looking  before  and  after,' 
controlled  the  blind  momentary  impulses  of  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation,  controlled  the  blind  momentary  im- 
pulses of  the  sexual  instinct,  had  fnorality  revealed  to 
him ;  so  in  like  manner  we  may  say,  that  the  first  man 
who  was  thrilled  with  gratitude,  devotion,  and  awe,  at  the 
sense  of  joy  and  peace,  not  of  his  own  making,  which 
followed  the  exercise  of  this  self-control,  had  religiofi  re- 
vealed to  him.  And,  for  us  at  least,  this  man  was  Israel. 
And  here,  as  we  have  ahready  pointed  out  the  falseness 
of  the  common  antithesis  between  ethical  and  religious^ 
let  us   anticipate  the   objection  that  the   religion   now 

E 


50  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

spoken  of  is  but  natural  religion,  by  pointing  out  the 
falseness  of  the  common  antithesis,  also,  between  natural 
and  revealed.  For  that  in  us  which  is  really  natural  jsj 
in  truth,  revealed.  We  awake  to  the  consciousness  of  it,  we 
are  aware  of  it  coming  forth  in  our  mind  ;  but  we  feel  that 
we  did  not  make  it,  that  it  is  discovered  to  us,  that  it  is 
what  it  is  whether  we  will  or  no.  If  we  are  little  concerned 
about  it,  we  say  it  is  natural ;  if  much,  we  say  it  is  re- 
vealed. But  the  difference  between  the  two  is  not  one  of 
kind,  only  of  degree.  The  real  antithesis,  to  natural  and 
revealed  alike,  is  invented^  artificial.  Religion  springing  out 
of  an  experience  of  the  power,  the  grandeur,  the  necessity 
of  righteousness,  is  revealed  religion,  whether  we  find  it 
in  Sophocles  or  in  Isaiah  ;  '■  the  will  of  mortal  men  did  not 
beget  it,  neither  shall  oblivion  ever  put  it  to  sleep.'  A 
system  of  theological  notions  about  personality,  essence, 
existence,  consubstantiaHty,  is  artificial  religion,  and  is  the 
proper  opposite  to  revealed)  since  it  is  a  religion  which 
comes  forth  in  no  one's  consciousness,  but  is  invented  by 
the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester,  and  person- 
ages of  their  stamp, — able  men  with  uncommon  talents 
for  abstruse  reasoning.  This  religion  is  in  no  sense  re- 
vealed, just  because  it  is  in  no  sense  natural ;  and  revealed 
religion  is  properly  so  named,  just  in  proportion  as  it  is  in 
a  pre-eminent  degree  natural. 

The  religion  of  the  Bible,  therefore,  is  well  said  to  be 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  51 

revealed,  becaase  the  great  natural  truth,  that  '  righteous- 
ness  tendeth  to  life,'  is  seized  and  exhibited  there  with 
such  incomparable  force  and  efficacy.  All,  or  very  nearly 
all,  the  nations  of  mankind  have  recognised  the  import- 
ance of  conduct,  and  have  attributed  to  it  a  natural  obli- 
gation. They,  however,  looked  at  conduct,  not  as  some- 
thing full  of  happiness  and  joy,  but  as  something  one 
could  not  manage  to  do  without.  But :  '  Zion  heard  of 
it  and  rejoiced,  and  the  daughters  of  Judah  were  glad, 
because  of  thy  judgments,  O  Eternal ! '  Happiness  is  our 
being's  end  and  aim,  and  no  one  has  ever  come  near 
Israel  in  feeling,  and  in  making  others  feel,  that  to 
righteousness  belo?igs  happiness  !  The  prodigies  and  the 
marvellous  of  Bible-religion  are  common  to  it  with  all 
religions ;  the  love  of  righteousness,  in  this  eminency,  is 
its  own. 


The  real  germ  of  religious  consciousness,  therefore, 
out  of  which  sprang  Israel's  name  for  God,  to  which  the 
records  of  his  history  adapted  themselves,  and  which 
came  to  be  clothed  upon,  in  time,  with  a  mighty  growth 
of  poetry  and  tradition,  was  a  consciousness  of  the  not 
ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness.  And  the  way  to 
convince  oneself  of  this  is  by  studying  the  Bible  with  a 


52  literature' AND  DOGMA. 

fair  mind,  and  with  the  tact  which  letters,  surely,  alone 
can  give.  For  the  thing  turns  upon  understanding  the 
manner  in  which  men  have  thought,  their  way  of  using 
words,  and  what  they  mean  by  them.  And  by  knowing 
letters,  by  becoming  conversant  with  the  best  that  has 
been  thought  and  said  in  the  world,  we  become  ac- 
quainted not  only  with  the  history,  but  also  with  the 
scope  and  powers,  of  the  instruments  men  employ  in 
thinking  and  speaking.  And  this  is  just  what  is  sought  for. 
And  with  the  sort  of  experience  thus  gained  of  the 
history  of  the  human  spirit,  objections,  as  we  have  said, 
will  be  found  not  so  much  to  be  refuted  by  reasoning 
as  to  fall  away  of  themselves.  Is  it  objected  :  '  Why, 
if  the  Hebrews  of  the  Bible  had  thus  eminently  the 
sense  for  righteousness,  does  it  not  equally  distinguish 
the  Jews  now?'  But  does  not  experience  show  us, 
how  entirely  a  change  of  circumstances  may  change  a 
people's  character;  and  have  the  modern  Jews  lost  more 
of  what  distinguished  their  ancestors,  or  even  so  much, 
as  the  modern  Greeks  of  what  distinguished  theirs  ? 
Where  is  now,  among  the  Greeks,  the  dignity  of  life  of 
Pericles,  the  dignity  of  thought  and  of  art  of  Phidias  and 
Plato  ?  Is  it  objected,  that  the  Jews'  God  was  not  the 
enduring  power  that  makes  for  righteousness,  but  only 
their  tribal  God,  who  gave  them  the  victory  in  the  battle 


RELIGION   GIVEN.  53 


and  plagued  them  that  hated  them?  But  how,  then, 
comes  their  literature  to  be  full  of  such  things  as  :  *  Shew 
me  thy  ways,  O  Eternal,  and  teach  me  thy  paths ;  let  /«- 
tegrity  and  uprighUiess  preserve  me,  for  I  put  my  trust  in 
thee !  if  I  incline  unto  wickedness  with  my  heart,  the 
Eternal  will  not  hear  me ;  for  they  who  do  no  wicked?iess 
walk  in  his  ways.'  From  the  sense  that  with  men  thus 
guided  and  going  right  in  goodness  it  could  not  but 
be  well,  that  their  leaf  could  hot  wither  and  that 
whatsoever  they  did  must  prosper,  would  naturally 
come  the  sense  that  in  their  wars  with  an  enemy  the 
enemy  should  be  put  to  confusion  and  i/iey  should 
triumph.  But  how,  out  of  the  mere  sense  that  their 
enemy  should  be  put  to  confusion  and  they  should 
triumph,  could  the  desire  for  goodness  come  ?  Is  it  ob- 
jected, that  'the  law  of  the  Lord'  was  a  positive  traditionary 
code  to  them,  standing  as  a  mechanical  rule  which  held 
them  in  awe  ?  that  their  'fear  of  the  Lord'  was  superstitious 
dread  of  an  assumed  magnified  and  non-natural  man? 
But  why,  then,  are  they  always  saying  :  '  Teach  me  thy 
law,  open  mine  eyes,  make  me  to  U7iderstand  wisdom 
secretly  ! '  if  all  the  law  they  were  thinking  of  stood  stark 
and  fixed  before  their  eyes  already  ?  And  what  could  they 
mean  by  :  '  I  will  love  thee,  O  Eternal,  my  strength  ! '  if 
the  fear  they  meant  was  not  the  awe-filled  observance 


54  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

from  deep  attachment,  but  a  servile  terror?  Is  it  ob- 
jected, that  their  conception  of  righteousness  was  a  narrow 
and  rigid  one,  centring  mainly  in  what  they  called  judg- 
ment :  *  Hate  the  evil  and  love  the  good,  and  establish 
judgnwit  in  the  gate  ! '  so  that  *  evil,'  for  them,  did  not 
take  in  all  faults  whatever  of  heart  and  conduct,  but  meant 
chiefly  oppression,  graspingness,  a  violent  mendacious 
tongue,  insolent  and  riotous  excess?  True;  their  concep- 
tion of  righteousness  was  much  of  this  kind,  and  it  was 
narrow.  But  whoever  sincerely  attends  to  conduct^  along 
however  limited  a  line,  is  on  his  way  to  bring  under  the 
eye  of  conscience  all  conduct  whatever ;  and  already,  in 
the  Old  Testament,  the  somewhat  monotonous  inculcation 
of  the  social  virtues  of  judgment  and  justice  is  con- 
tinually broken  through  by  deeper  movements  of  personal 
religion.  Every  time  that  the  words  coniritio7i  or  Jmjnility 
drop  from  the  lips  of  prophet  or  psalmist,  Christianity 
appears.  Is  it  objected,  finally,  that  even  their  own 
narrow  conception  of  righteousness  this  peojole  could  not 
follow,  but  were  perpetually  oppressive,  grasping,  slander- 
ous, sensual  ?  Why,  the  very  interest  and  importance  of 
their  witness  to  righteousness  lies  in  their  having  felt  so 
deeply  the  necessity  of  what  they  were  so  little  able  to  ac- 
complish !  They  had  the  strongest  impulses  in  the  world 
to  violence  and  excess,  the  keenest  pleasure  in  gratifying 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  55 

these  impulses.  And  yet  they  had  such  a  sense  of  the 
natural  necessary  connexion  between  conduct  and 
happiness,  that  they  kept  always  saying,  in  spite  of  them- 
selves :  To  him  that  ordereth  his  conversation  right  shall 
he  shown  the  salvatio?i  of  God  I 

Now  manifestly  this  sense  of  theirs  has  a  double  force 
for  the  rest  of  mankind, — an  evidential  force  and  a  prac- 
tical force.  Its  evidential  force  is  in  keeping  before  men's 
view,  by  the  example  of  the  signal  apparition  in  one 
branch  of  our  race  of  the  sense  for  conduct  and  righ- 
teousness, the  reality  and  naturalness  of  that  sense. 
Clearly,  unless  a  sense  or  endowment  of  human  nature, 
liowever  in  itself  real  and  beneficent,  has  some  signal 
representative  among  mankind,  it  tends  to  be  pressed 
upon  by  other  senses  and  endowments,  to  suffer  from  its 
o^\^l  want  of  energy,  and  to  be  more  and  more  pushed 
out  of  sight.  Any  one,  for  instance,  who  will  go  to  the 
Potteries,  and  will  look  at  the  tawdry,  glaring,  ill-pro- 
portioned ware  which  is  being  made  there  for  certain 
American  and  colonial  markets,  will  easily  convince  him- 
self how,  in  our  people  and  kindred,  the  sense 'for  the 
arts  of  design,  though  it  is  certainly  planted  in  human 
nature,  might  dwindle  and  sink  to  almost  nothing,  if  it 
were  not  for  the  witness  borne  to  this  sense,  and  the  pro- 
test offered  against  its  extinction,  by  the  brilliant  aesthetic 


56  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

endowment  and  artistic  work  of  ancient  Greece.  And 
one  cannot  look  out  over  the  world  without  seeing  that 
the  same  sort  of  thing  might  very  well  befall  conduct, 
too,  if  it  were  not  for  the  signal  witness  borne  by  Israel. 

Then  there  is  the  practical  force  of  their  example ;  and 
this   is   even   more   important.      Everyone   knows   how 
those,  who  want  to  cultivate  any  sense  or  endowment  in 
themselves,  must  be  habitually  conversant  w^th  the  works 
of  people  who  have  been  eminent  for  that  sense,  must 
study  them,  catch  inspiration  from  them ;  only  in  this 
way,  indeed,  can  progress  be  made.     And  as  long  as  the 
world  lasts,  all  who  want  to  make  progress  in  righteous- 
ness will  come  to  Israel  for  inspiration,  as  to  the  people 
who  have  had  the  sense  for  righteousness  most  glowing 
and  strongest;  and  in  hearing  and  reading  the  words  Israel 
has  uttered  for  us,  carers  for  conduct  will  find  a  glow  and 
a  force  they  could  find  nowhere  else.     As  well  imagine  a 
man  with  a  sense  for  sculpture  not  cultivating  it  by  the 
help  of  the  remains  of  Greek  art,  or  a  man  with  a  sense 
for  poetry  not  cultivating  it  by  the  help  of  Homer  and 
Shakspeare,  as  a  man  with  a  sense  for  conduct  not  cul- 
tivating it  by  the  help  of  the  Bible  !     And  this  sense,  in 
the  satisfying  of  which  we  come  naturally  to  the  Bible, 
is  a  sense  which  the  generality  of  men  have  far  more 
decidedly  than  they  have  the  sense  for  art  or  for  science ; 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  57 


at  any  rate,  whether  we  have  it  decidedly  or  no,  it  is  the 
sense  which  has  to  do  with  three-fourths  of  human  hfe. 

This  does  truly  constitute  for  Israel  a  most  extraordi- 
nary distinction.  In  spite  of  all  which  in  them  and  in  their 
character  is  unattractive,  nay,  repellent, — in  spite  of  their  ■ 
shortcomings  even  in  righteousness  itself  and  their  in- 
significance in  everything  else, — this  petty,  unsuccessful, 
unamiable  people,  without  politics,  without  science,  with- 
out art,  without  charm,  deserve  their  great  place  in  the 
world's  regard,  and  are  likely  to  have  it  greater,  as  the 
world  goes  on,  rather  than  less.  It  is  secured  to  them 
by  the  facts  of  human  nature,  and  by  the  unalterable 
constitution  of  things.  '  God  has  given  commandment 
to  bless,  and  he  hath  blessed,  and  we  cannot  reverse 
it ;  He  hath  not  seen  iniquity  in  Jacob,  and  he  hath  not 
seen  perverseness  in  Israel ;  the  Eternal,  his  God,  is 
with  him ! ' 

Any  one  does  a  good  deed  who  removes  stumbling- 
blocks  out  of  the  way  of  feeling  and  profiting  by  the 
witness  left  by  this  people.  And  so,  instead  of  making 
our  Hebrew  speakers  mean,  in  their  use  of  the  word 
God,  a  scientific  affirmation  which  never  entered  into 
their  heads,  and  about  which  many  will  dispute,  let  us 
content  ourselves  with  making  them  mean,  as  matter  of 
scientific  fact  and  experience,  what  they  really  did  mean 


58  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

as  such,  and  what  is  unchallengeable.  Let  us  put  into 
their  *  Eternal '  and  '  God '  no  more  science  than  they 
did  : — the  enduring  powe?%  not  ourselves,  which  makes  for 
righteousness.  They  meant  more  by  these  names,  but 
they  meant  this ;  and  what  they  meant  more  they  could 
not  grasp  fully,  but  this  they  grasped  fully.  The  sense 
which  this  will  give  us  for  their  words  is  at  least  solid ;  so 
that  we  may  find  it  of  use  as  a  guide  to  steady  us,  and  to 
give  us  a  constant  clue  in  following  what  they  say. 

And  is  it  so  unworthy  ?  It  is  true,  unless  we  can  fill  it 
with  as  much  feeling  as  they  did,  the  mere  possessing  it 
will  not  carry  us  far.  But  matters  are  not  much  mended 
by  taking  their  language  of  approximative  figure  and 
using  it  for  the  language  of  scientific  definition ;  or  by 
crediting  them  with  our  own  dubious  science,  deduced 
from  metaphysical  ideas  which  they  never  had.  A  better 
way  than  this,  surely,  is  to  take  their  fact  of  experience, 
to  keep  it  steadily  for  our  basis  in  using  their  language, 
and  to  see  whether  from  using  their  language  with  the 
ground  of  this  real  and  firm  sense  to  it,  as  they  them- 
selves did,  somewhat  of  their  feeling,  too,  may  not  grow 
upon  us.  At  least  we  shall  know  what  we  are  saying ; 
and  that  what  we  are  saying  is  t7'ne,  however  inadequate. 

But  is  this  confessed  inadequateness  .of  our  speech, 
concerning  that  which  we  will  not  call  by  the  negative 


RELIGION  GIVEN.  59 

name  of  the  unknown  and  unknowable,  but  rather  by 
the  name  of  the  unexplored  and  the  inexpressible,  and 
of  which  the  Hebrews  themselves  said  :  It  is  more  high 
than  heaven^  ivhat  canst  thoic  do?  deeper  than  hell,  what 
canst  thoic  know  ? — is  this  reservedness  of  affirmation 
about  God  less  worthy  of  him,  than  the  astounding  par- 
ticularity and  licence  of  affirmation  of  our  dogmatists,  as 
if  he  were  a  man  in  the  next  street  ?  Nay,  and  nearly 
all  the  difficulties  which  torment  theology, — as  the 
reconciling  God's  justice  with  his  mercy,  and  so  on, — 
come  from  this  licence  and  particularity;  theologians 
having  precisely,  as  it  would  often  seem,  built  up  a  wall 
first,  in  order  afterwards  to  run  their  own  heads  against  it. 
This,  we  say,  is  what  comes  of  too  much  talent  for  ab- 
stract reasoning.  One  cannot  help  seeing  the  theory  of 
causation  and  such  things,  where  one  should  only  see  a 
far  simpler  matter :  the  power,  the  grandeur,  the  neces- 
sity of  righteousness.  To  be  sure,  a  perception  of  these  is 
at  the  bottom  of  popular  religion,  underneath  all  the  ex- 
travagances theologians  have  taught  people  to  utter,  and 
makes  the  whole  value  of  it.  For  the  sake  of  this  true 
practical  perception  one  might  be  quite  content  to  leave 
at  rest  a  matter  where  practice,  after  all,  is  everything, 
and  theory  nothing.  Only,  when  religion  is  called  in 
question  because  of  the  extravagances  of  theology  being 


6o  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

passed  off  as  religion,  one  disengages  and  helps  religion 
by  showing  their  utter  delusiveness.  They  arose  out  of 
the  talents  of  able  men  for  reasoning,  and  their  want 
(not  through  lack  of  talent,  for  the  thing  needs  none ; 
it  needs  only  time,  trouble,  good  fortune,  and  a  fair  mind  ; 
but  through  their  being  taken  up  with  their  reasoning 
power), — their  want  of  literary  experience.  Unluckily,  the 
sphere  where  they  show  their  talents  is  one  for  literary 
experience  rather  than  for  reasoning.  This  mishap  has  at 
the  very  outset,  in  the  dealings  of  theologians  with  that 
starting-point  of  our  religion, — the  experience  of  Israel  as 
set  forth  in  the  Old  Testament, — been  the  cause,  we  have 
seen,  of  great  confusion.  Naturally,  as  we  shall  hereafter 
see,  the  confusion  becomes  worse  confounded  as  they 
proceed. 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING,  6i 


CHAPTER   II. 


ABERGLAUBE    INVADING 


When  people  ask  for  our  attention  because  of  what  has 
passed,  they  say,  'in  the  Council  of  the  Trinity,' and  been 
promulgated,  for  our  direction,  by  'a  Personal  First 
Cause,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  uni- 
verse,' it  is  certainly  open  to  any  man  to  refuse  to  hear 
them,  on  the  plea  that  the  very  thing  they  start  with  they 
have  no  means  of  proving.  And  we  see  that  many  do  so 
refuse  their  attention ;  and  that  the  breach  there  is,  for 
instance,  between  popular  religion  and  what  is  called 
science^  comes  from  this  cause.  But  it  is  altogether  dif- 
ferent when  people  ask  for  our  attention  on  the  strength 
of  this  other  first  principle  :  '  To  righteousness  belongs 
happiness ; '  or  this  :  '  There  is  an  enduring  power,  not 
ourselves,  which  makes  for  righteousness.'  The  more  we 
meditate  on  this  starting-ground  of  theirs,  the  more  we 
shall  find  that  there  is  solidity  in  it,  and  the  more  we  shall 
be  inclined  to  go  along  with  them,  and  to  see  what  will 
come  of  it. 


62  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


And  herein  is  the  advantage  of  giving  this  plain,  though 
restricted,  sense  to  the  Bible  phrases  :  '  He  that  keepeth 
the  law,  happy  is  he  ! '  and :  '  Whoso  trusteth  in  the 
Eternal,  happy  is  he  ! '  By  tradition,  emotion,  imagina- 
tion, the  Hebrews,  no  doubt,  came  to  attach  more  than 
this  plain  sense  to  these  phrases ;  but  this  plain,  solid, 
and  experimental  sense  they  attached  to  them  at  bottom, 
they  attached  originally;  and  in  attaching  it  they  were  on 
sure  ground  of  fact,  where  we  can  all  go  with  them. 
Their  words,  we  shall  find,  taken  in  this  sense  have  quite 
a  new  force  for  us,  and  an  indisputable  one.  It  is  worth 
while  accustoming  ourselves  to  use  them  thus,  in  order  to 
bring  out  this  force  and  to  see  how  real  it  is,  limited 
though  it  be,  and  insignificant  as  it  may  appear.  The 
very  substitution  of  the  word  Eternal  for  the  word  Lord 
is  something  gained  in  this  direction.  The  word  Eternal 
has  less  of  particularity  and  palpability  for  the  imagina- 
tion, but  what  it  does  afiinTi  is  real  and  verifiable. 

Let  us  fix  firmly  in  our  minds,  with  this  limited  but  real 
sense  to  the  words  we  employ,  the  connexion  of  ideas 
which  was  ever  present  to  the  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  people. 
/;/  the  way  of  righteousness  is  life,  and  in  the  pathway 
thereof  is  no  death;  as  righteousness  tendeth  to  life,  so  he 
that  pnrsneth  evil,  pursueth  it  to  his  own  death;  as  the 
whirlwind  passeth,   so   is  the  wicked  no  more,   hit  the 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  63 

righteous  is  an  rcerlasting  foundation  ; — here  is  the  ground 
idea.  Yet  there  are  continual  momentary  suggestions 
which  make  for  gratifying  our  apparent  self,  for  un- 
righteousness ;  nevertheless,  what  makes  for  our  real  self, 
for  righteousness,  is  lasting,  and  holds  good  in  the  end. 
Therefore  :  Trust  in  the  Eter?ial  with  all  thine  heart,  and 
lean  not  unto  thine  own  understanding ;  there  is  no  wisdom, 
nor  understanding,  nor  counsel  against  the  Eternal;  there, 
is  a  way  that  seenieth  right  unto  a  man,  but  the  €?i/^ 
thereof  are  the  ways  of  death;  there  are  maiiy  devices  in  d 
man's  heart,  nei'ertheless  the  counsel  of  the  Eternal,  that 
shall  stand.  To  follow  this  counsel  of  the  Eternal  is  the 
only  true  wisdom  and  understanding :  The  fear  of  the 
Eternal,  that  is  wisdom,  aiid  to  depai^t  from  ez'il,  that  is 
understanding.  It  is  also  happiness  :  Blessed  is  every  o?ie 
thatfeareth  the  Eternal,  that  walketh  in  his  ways ;  happy 
shall  he  be,  and  it  shall  be  well  with  him  I  O  taste  and 
see  how  gracious  the  Eter?ial  is  /  blessed  is  the  man  that 
trusteth  in  him.  Blessed  is  the  man  whose  delight  is  in  the 
law  of  the  Eternal;  his  leaf  shall  not  wither,  and  whatso- 
ever he  doeth,  it  shall  prosper.  And  the  more  a  man  walks 
in  this  way  of  righteousness,  the  more  he  feels  himself 
borne  by  a  power  not  his  own  :  Not  by  might  and  not  by 
power,  but  by  my  spirit,  saith  the  Eternal.  O  Eternal,  I 
know  that  the  way  of  man  is  not  in  himself!  all  things 


64  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

come  of  thee;  in  thy  light  do  we  see  light;  the  preparation 
of  the  heart  in  man  is  from  the  Eternal.  The  Eter?ial 
ordereth  a  good  man^s  going,  and  making  his  way  accept- 
able to  himself  But  man  feels,  too,  how  far  he  comes 
from  fulfilling  or  even  from  fully  perceiving  this  true 
law  of  his  being,  these  indications  of  the  Eternal,  the 
way  of  righteousness.  He  says,  and  must  say:  /  am  a 
stranger  npon  earth,  Oh,  hide  not  thy  commandments  from 
me  I  Enter  not  into  judgment  with  thy  serva?it,  0  Eternal, 
for  in  thy  sight  shall  no  man  living  be  justified!  Never- 
theless, as  a  man  holds  on  to  practice  as  well  as  he  can, 
and  avoids,  at  any  rate,  '  presumptuous  sins,'  courses  he 
can  clearly  see  to  be  wrong,  films  fall  away  from  his 
eyes,  the  indications  of  the  Eternal  come  out  more  and 
more  fully,  we  are  cleansed  from  faults  which  were 
hitherto  secret  to  us :  Exa7nine  me,  O  God,  and  prove 
me,  try  out  my  reikis  and  my  heart;  look  well  if  there  be 
any  way  of  wickedness  in  me,  and  lead  me  ifi  the  way 
€Terlasti7ig  I  O  cleanse  thou  me  from  my  secret  faults  ! 
thou  hast  proved  my  heart,  thou-  hast  visited  me  in  the 
night,  thou  hast  tried  me  and  shall  find  nothing.  And 
the  more  we  thus  get  to  keep  innocency,  the  more 
we  wonderfully  find  joy  and  peace  :  O  how  plentiful  is 
thy  goodness  which  thou  hast  laid  up  for  them  that  fear 
thee  I  thou  shall  hide  thein  in  the  secret  of  thy  presence 
from  the  provoking  of  men.     ThoiL  7vilt  shoiu  me  the  path 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  65 

of  life  ^  in  thy  presence  is  the  fulness  of  Joy,  at  thy  right  hajtd 
there  are  pleasures  for  evermore.  iMore  and  more  this 
dwelling  on  the  joy  and  peace  from  righteousness,  and  on 
the  power  which  makes  for  righteousness,  becomes  a  man's 
consolation  and  refuge  :  Thou  art  my  hiding-place,  thou 
shall  prcsei've  me  from  trouble;  if  my  delight  had  not 
heen  in  thy  law,  I  should  have  perished  in  my  trouble. 
When  I  am  in  heaviness,  I  laill  think  7ipon  God;  a 
refuge  from  the  storm,  a  shadow  f-om  the  heat!  O 
lead  me  to  the  rock  that  is  higher  tha^i  1 1  The  name  of 
the  Eternal  is  as  a  strong  tower,  the  I'ighteous  7'imnetk 
into  it  and  is  safe.  And  the  more  we  experience  this 
shelter,  the  more  we  come  to  feel  that  it  is  protecting 
even  to  tenderness  :  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  own 
childre?i,  even  so  is  the  Eternal  mercifid  unto  them  that 
fear  him.  Nay,  every  other  support,  we  at  last  find, 
every  other  attachment  may  fail  us,  this  alone  fails  not : 
Ca]i  a  wojnan  forget  her  sucking  child,  that  she  should 
not  have  compassion  on  the  son  of  her  womb  ?  Yea,  they 
may  forget,  yet  will  I  not  forget  thee  I 

All  this,  we  say,  rests  originally  upon  the  simple  but 
solid  experience :  '  Conduct  brings  happiness^  or,  '  Righte- 
ousness tendeth  to  life:  And,  by  making  it  agam  rest 
there,  we  bring  out  in  a  new  but  most  real  and  sure  way 
its  truth  and  its  power. 

F 


66  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

For  it  has  not  always  continued  to  rest  there,  and  in 
popular  religion  now,  as  we  manifestly  see,  it  rests  there 
no  longer.  It  is  important  to  follow  the  way  in  which  this 
change  gradually  happened,  and  the  thing  ceased  to  rest 
there.  Israel's  original  perception  was  true  :  Righteousness 
teiideth  to  life!  It  was  true,  the  workers  of  righteous- 
ness have  a  covejiant  ivith  the  Etei'nal^  their  work  shall 
be  blessed  and  blessing,  and  shall  endure  for  ever.  But 
what  apparent  contradictions  was  this  true  original  per- 
ception destined  to  meet  with ;  what  vast  delays,  at  any 
rate,  were  to  be  interposed  before  its  truth  could  become 
manifest !  And  how  instructively  the  successive  docu- 
ments of  the  Bible,  which  popular  religion  treats  as  if  it 
were  all  of  one  piece,  one  time,  and  one  mind,  bring  out 
the  effect  on  Israel  of  these  delays  and  contradictions  ! 
What  a  distance  between  the  eighteenth  Psalm  and  the 
eighty-ninth ;  between  the  Book  of  Proverbs  and  the  Book 
of  Ecclesiastes  !  A  time  some  thousand  years  before 
Christ,  the  golden  age  of  Israel,  is  the  date  to  which  the 
eighteenth  Psalm  and  the  chief  part  of  the  Book  of 
Proverbs  belong ;  this  is  the  time  in  which  the  sense  of 
the  necessary  connexion  between  righteousness  and 
happiness  appears  with  its  full  simplicity  and  force.  The 
righteous  shall  be  recompensed  in  the  earth,  much  more  the 
wicked  and  the  sinner!  is  the  constant  burden  of  the  Book 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  67 

of  Proverbs.  And  David,  in  the  eighteenth  Psalm,  ex- 
presses his  conviction  of  the  intimate  dei^endence  of 
happiness  upon  conduct,  in  terms  which,  though  they  are 
not  without  a  certain  crudity,  are  yet  far  more  edifying  in 
their  truth  and  naturahiess  than  those  morbid  senti- 
mentaHties  of  Protestantism  about  man's  natural  vileness 
and  Christ's  imputed  righteousness,  to  which  they  are 
diametrically  opposed.  '  I  have  kept  the  ways  of  the 
Eternal,'  he  says  ;  '  I  was  also  upright  before  him,  and  I 
kept  myself  from  mine  iniquity;  therefore  hath  the 
Eternal  rewarded  me  according  to  my  righteousness, 
according  to  the  cleanness  of  my  hands  hath  he  recom- 
pensed me  ;  great  prosperity  showeth  he  unto  his  king, 
and  showeth  loving-kindness  unto  David  his  anointed, 
and  unto  his  seed  for  evermore.'  That  may  be  called 
the  classic  passage  for  that  covejianf  Israel  always  thinks 
and  speaks  of,  as  made  by  God  with  his  servant  David, 
Israel's  second  founder.  And  this  covenant  was  but  a 
renewal  of  the  covenant  made  with  Israel's  first  founder, 
God's  servant  Abraham,  that  ^  righteousness  shall  ijiher it  a 
blessi?ig,'  and  that  '  iti  thy  seed  all  nations  of  the  earth  shall 
be  blessed.' 

But  what  a  change  in  the  eighty-ninth  Psalm,  a  i^w^ 
hundred  years  later!  *  Eternal,  where  are  thy  former 
loving-kindnesses  which  thou  swarest  unto  David  ?  thou 


68  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

hast  abhorred  and  forsaken  thine  anointed,  thou  hast 
made  void  the  covenant ;  O  remember  how  short  my  time 
is  ! '  '  The  righteous  shall  be  recompensed  in  the  eai'th  I ' 
the  speaker  means ;  '  my  death  is  near,  and  death  ends 
all  ;  where,  Eternal,  is  thy  promise  ? ' 

Most  remarkable,  indeed,  is  the  inward  travail  to 
which,  in  the  six  hundred  years  that  followed  the  age  of 
David^nd  Solomon,  the  many  and  rude  shocks  befalling 
Israel's  fundamental  idea,  Righteoiis7iess  tcnddh  to  life  and 
he  that  piirsiieth  evil pursiceth  it  to  his  oivn  death,  gave 
occasion.  'Wherefore  do  the  wicked  live,'  asks  Job, 
'become  old,  yea,  are  mighty  in  power?  their  houses 
are  safe;from  fear,  neither  is  the  rod  of  God  upon  them  ? ' 
Job  himself  is  righteous,  and  yet :  '  On  mine  eyelids  is 
the  shadow  of  death,  not  for  any  injustice  in  mine  hands.' 
All  through  the  Book  of  Job  the  question,  how  this  can 
be,  is  over  and  over  again  asked  and  never  answered  \ 
inadequate  solutions  are  offered  and  repelled,  but  an 
adequate  solution  is  never  reached.  The  only  solution 
reached  is  that  of  silence  before  the  insoluble  :  '  I  will 
lay  mine  hand  upon  my  mouth.'  The  two  perceptions 
are  left  confronting  one  another  like  Kantian  antinomies. 
'  The  earth  is  given  unto  the  hand  of  the  wicked! '  and 
yet :  '  The  counsel  of  the  wicked  is  far  from  me,  God 
rewardeth  himj  and  he  shall  know  it ! '     And  this  last,  the 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  69 


original  perception,  remains  indestructible.  The  Book 
of  Ecclesiastes,  again,  has  been  called  sceptical,  epicu- 
rean ;  it  is  certainly  without  the  glow  and  hope  which 
animate  the  Bible  in  general.  It  belongs,  probably,  to  the 
latter  half  of  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  to  the  time  of 
Nehemiah  and  Malachi,  with  difficulties  pressing  the  newly 
restored  Jewish  community  on  all  sides,  with  a  Persian 
governor  lording  it  in  Jerusalem,  with  resources  light 
and  taxes  heavy,  with  the  cancer  of  poverty  eating  into  the 
mass  of  the  people,  with  the  rich  estranged  from  the  poor 
and  from  the  national  traditions,  with  the  priesthood 
slack,  insincere,  and  worthless.  Composed  under  such 
circumstances,  thebook  has  been  said,  and  with  justice,  to 
breathe  resignation  at  the  grave  of  Israel.  Its  author  sees 
'  the  tears  of  the  oppressed,  and  they  had  no  comforter, 
and  on  the  side  of  their  oppressors  there  was  power; 
wherefore  I  praised  the  dead  which  are  already  dead  more 
than  the  living  which  are  yet  alive.'  He  sees  'all  things 
come  alike  to  all,  there  is  one  event  to  the  righteous  and  to 
the  wicked.'  Attempts  at  a  philosophic  indifference  appear, 
at  a  sceptical  suspension  of  judgment,  at  an  easy  ne  quid 
niviis :  '  Be  not  righteous  overmuch,  neither  make  thyself 
overwise  !  why  shouldst  thou  destroy  thyself? '  Vain 
attempts,  even  at  a  moment  which  favoured  them  !  shows 
of  scepticism,  vanishing  as  soon  as  uttered  before  the  in- 


70  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


tractable  conscientiousness  of  Israel  !  For  the  Preacher 
makes  answer  against  himself:  'Though  a  sinner  do  evil 
a  hundred  times  and  his  days  be  prolonged,  yet  surely  I 
know  that  it  shall  be  well  with  them  that  fear  God  ;  but 
it  shall  not  be  well  with  the  wicked,  because  he  feareth 
not  before  God.'  The  Preacher's  contemporary,  too, 
IMalachi,  felt  the  pressure  of  the  same  circumstances,  had 
the  same  occasions  of  despondency.  All  around  him 
people  were  saying  :  '  Every  one  that  doeth  evil  is  good 
in  the  sight  of  the  Eternal,  and  he  delighteth  in  them ; 
where  is  the  God  of  judgment?  it  is  vain  to  serve  God, 
and  what  profit  is  it  that  we  have  kept  his  ordinance  ?  ' 
What  a  change  from  the  clear  certitude  of  the  golden 
age  :  '  As  the  w^hirlwind  passeth,  so  is  the  wicked  no  more  ; 
but  the  righteous  is  an  everlasting  foundation  !'  But 
yet,  with  all  the  certitude  of  this  happier  past,  Malachi 
answers  on  behalf  of  the  Eternal :  '  Unto  you  that  fear 
my  name  shall  the  sun  of  righteousness  arise  with  healing 
in  his  wings  ! ' 

Many  there  were,  no  doubt,  who  had  lost  all  living 
sense  that  the  promises  were  made  to  rig/ifeousfiess ;  who 
took  them  mechanically,  as  made  to  them  and  assured  to 
them  because  they  were  the  seed  of  Abraham,  because 
they  were,  in  St.  Paul's  words  :  '  Israelites,  to  whom 
pertain  the  adoption  and  the  glory  and  the  covenants  and 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  71 

the  giving  of  the  law  and  the  service  of  God,  and  whose 
are  the  fathers.'  These  people  were  perplexed  and 
indignant  when  the  privileged  seed  became  unprosperous ; 
and  they  looked  for  some  great  change  to  be  ^vrought  in 
the  fallen  fortunes  of  Israel,  wrought  miraculously  and 
materially.  And  they  were,  no  doubt,  the  great  ma- 
jority, and  of  the  mass  of  Jewish  expectation  concerning 
the  future  they  stamped  the  character.  With  them,  how- 
ever, our  interest  does  not  for  the  present  lie  ;  it  lies  with 
the  prophets  and  those  whom  the  prophets  represent. 
It  lies  with  the  continued  depositaries  of  the  original 
revelation  to  Israel,  Righteousness  tendeth  to  life ;  who  saw 
clearly  enough  that  the  promises  were  to  righteousness^  and 
that  what  tendeth  to  life  was  not  the  seed  of  Abraham 
taken  in  itself,  but  righteousness.  With  this  minority,  and 
with  its  noble  representatives  the  prophets,  our  present 
interest  lies ;  the  further  development  of  their  conviction 
about  righteousness  is  what  it  here  imports  us  to  trace. 
An  indestructible  faith  that  the  righteous  is  an  evejdasting 
foundation  they  had ;  yet  they  too,  as  we  have  seen,  could 
not  but  notice,  as  time  went  on,  many  things  which  seemed 
apparently  to  contradict  this  their  belief  In  private  life, 
there  was  the  frequent  prosperity  of  the  sinner.  In  the 
life  of  nations,  there  was  the  rise  and  power  of  the  great 
unrighteous  kingdoms  of  the  heathen,  the  unsuccessfulness 


72  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

of  Israel;  although  Israel  was  undoubtedly,  as  compared 
with  the  heathen,  the  depositary  and  upholder  of  the 
idea  of  righteousness.  Therefore  prophets  and  righteous 
men  also,  like  the  unspiritual  crowd,  could  not  but  look 
ardently  and  expectantly  to  the  future,  to  some  great 
change  and  redress  in  store. 

At  the  same  time,  although  their  experience,  that  the 
righteous  were  often  afflicted  and  the  wicked  often 
prosperous,  could  not  but  perplex  pious  Hebrews ;  although 
their  conscience  felt,  and  could  not  but  feel,  that,  com- 
pared with  the  other  nations  with  whom  they  came  in 
contact,  they  themselves  and  their  fathers  had  a  concern 
for  righteousness,  and  an  unremitting  sense  of  its  necessity, 
which  put  them  in  covenant  with  the  Eternal  who  makes 
for  righteousness,  and  which  rendered  the  triumph  of 
other  nations  over  them  a  triumph  of  people  who  cared 
little  for  righteousness  over  people  who  cared  for  it  much, 
and  a  cause  of  perplexity,  therefore,  to  men's  trust  in  the 
Eternal, — though  their  conscience  told  them  this,  yet  of 
their  own  shortcomings  and  perversities  it  told  them 
louder  still,  and  that  their  sins  had  in  truth  been  enough 
to  break  their  covenant  with  the  Eternal  a  thousand 
times  over,  and  to  bring  justly  upon  them  all  the  miseries 
they  suffered.  To  enable  them  to  meet  the  terrible  day, 
when  the  Eternal  would  avenge  him  of  his  enemies  and 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  73 

make  up  his  jewels,  they  themselves  needed,  they  knew^ 
the  voice  of  a  second  Elijah,  a  change  of  the  inner  man, 
repentance. 


And  then,  with  Malachi's  testimony  on  its  lips  to  the 
truth  of  Israel's  ruling  idea,  Rightcotisness  tendeth  to  life! 
died  prophecy.  Through  four  hundred  years  the  mind  of 
Israel  revolved  those  wonderful  utterances,  which,  on  the 
ear  of  even  those  who  only  half  understand  them,  and 
who  do  not  at  all  believe  them,  strike  with  such  strange,  in- 
comparable power, — the  promises  of  prophecy.  Through  y 
four  hundred  years,  amid  defeat  and  humiliation,  the  j 
Hebrew  race  pondered  those  magnificent  assurances  that 
^ the  Eternals  arjn  is  not  shortened'  that  ^ righteoiistiess 
shall  be  for  ever,'  and  that  the  future  would  prove  this,  i 
even  if  the  present  did  not.  '  The  Eternal  fainteth  not, 
neither  is  weary ;  he  giveth  power  to  the  faint.  They 
that  wait  on  the  Eternal  shall  renew  their  strength ;  the 
redeemed  of  the  Eternal  shall  return  and  come  with 
singing  to  Zion,  and  everlasting  joy  shall  be  upon  their 
head  ;  they  shall  repair  the  old  wastes,  the  desolations  of 
many  generations ;  and  I,  the  Eternal,  will  make  an 
everlasting  covenant  with  them.  The  Eternal  shall  be 
thine   everlasting   light,  and   the  days  of  thy  mourning 


74  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

shall  be  ended  ;  the  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thy  light,  and 
kings  to  the  brightness  of  thy  rising,  and  my  righteousness 
shall  be  for  ever,  and  my  salvation  shall  not  be 
abolished.' ,.- 

The  prophets  themselves,  speaking  when  the  ruin 
of  their  country  was  impending,  or  soon  after  it  had 
happened,  had  had  in  prospect  the  actual  restoration  of 
Jerusalem,  the  submission  of  the  nations  around,  and  the 
empire  of  David  and  Solomon  renewed.  But  as  time 
went  on,  and  Israel's  return  from  captivity  and  resettlement 
of  Jerusalem  by  no  means  answered  his  glowing  anticipa- 
tions from  them,  these  anticipations  had  more  and  more 
a  construction  put  upon  them  which  set  at  defiance  the 
unworthiness  and  infelicities  of  the  actual  present,  which 
filled  up  what  prophecy  left  in  outline,  and  which 
embraced  the  world.  The  Hebrew  Amos,  of  the  eighth 
century  before  Christ,  promises  to  his  hearers  a  recovery 
from  their  ruin  in  which  they  shall  possess  the  remnaiit  of 
Edom  ;  the  Greek  or  Aramaic  Amos  of  the  Christian  era, 
whose  words  St.  James  produces  in  the  conference  at 
Jerusalem,  promises  a  recovery  for  Israel  in  which  the 
residue  of  men  shall  seek  the  Eternal.  This  is  but  a 
specimen  of  what  went  forward  on  a  large  scale.  The 
redeemer,  whom  the  unknown  prophet  of  the  captivity 
foretold  to   Zion,  has,   a   few  hundred  years   later,   for 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  75 

the  writer  whom  we  call  Daniel  and  for  his  con- 
temporaries, become  the  miraculous  agent  of  Israel's  new 
restoration,  the  heaven-sent  executor  of  the  Eternal's  judg- 
ment, and  the  bringer-in  of  the  kingdom  of  righteousness; 
the  Messiah,  in  short,  of  our  popular  religion.  '  One  like 
the  Son  of  Man  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  came 
to  the  Ancient  of  Days,  and  there  was  given  him  dominion 
and  glory,  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  people,  nations,  and 
languages  should  serve  him  ;  and  the  kingdom  and 
dominion  shall  be  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the 
Most  High.'  An  impartial  criticism  will  hardly  find 
in  the  Old  Testament  ^vriters  before  the  times  of  the 
Maccabees  (and  certainly  not  in  the  passages  usually 
quoted  to  prove  it)  the  doctrine  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul  or  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  But  by  the  time 
of  the  Maccabees,  when  this  passage  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel  was  written,  in  the  second  century  before  Christ, 
the  Jews  have  undoubtedly  become  familiar,  not  indeed 
^vith  the  idea  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  as  philosophers 
like  Plato  conceived  it,  but  with  the  notion  of  a  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead  to  take  their  trial  for  acceptance  or 
rejection  in  the  Most  High's  judgment  and  kingdom. 

To  this,  then,  has  swelled  Israel's  original  and  fruitful 
thesis  : — Righteousness  tejideth  to  life!  as  the  uliirlwiiid 
passeth,  so  is  the  wicked  no  more,  but  the  righteous  is  an  ez'er- 


76  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


lasting  foundation  !  The  phantasmagories  of  more  prodigal 
and  wild  imaginations  have  mingled  with  the  product  of 
Israel's  austere  spirit;  Babylon,  Persia,  Egypt,  even 
Greece,  have  left  their  trace  there ;  but  the  unchangeable 
substructure  remains,  and  on  that  substmcture  is  every- 
thing built  which  comes  after. 

In  one  sense,  the  lofty  Messianic  ideas  of  '  the  day  of 
the  Eternal's  coming,'  'the  consolation  of  Israel/  the 
restitution  of  all  things/  are  even  more  important  than 
the  solid  but  humbler  idea,  righteousness  tendeth  to  life, 
out  of  which  they  arose  ;  in  another  sense  they  are  much 
less  important.  They  are  more  important,  because  they 
are  the  development  of  this  idea  and  prove  its  strength. 
It  might  have  been  crushed  and  baffled  by  the  falsification 
events  seemed  to  delight  in  giving  it ;  that  instead  of 
being  crushed  and  baffled,  it  took  this  magnificent  flight, 
shows  its  innate  power.  And  they  also  in  a  wonderful 
manner  attract  emotion  to  the  ideas  of  conduct  and 
morality,  attract  it  to  them  and  combine  it  with  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  idea  that  7'ighteoiisness  tendeth  to 
life  has  a  firm,  experimental  ground,  which  the  Messianic 
ideas  have  not.  And  the  day  comes  when  the  possession 
of  such  a  ground  is  invaluable. 

That  the  spirit  of  man  should  entertain  hopes  and 
anticipations,  beyond  what  it  actually   knows   and   can 


ABERGLAUBE  INVADING.  77 

verify,  is  quite  natural.  Human  life  could  not  have  the 
scope,  and  depth,  and  progress  it  has,  were  this  otherwise. 
It  is  natural,  too,  to  make  these  hopes  and  anticipations 
give  in  their  turn  support  to  the  sim^Dle  and  humble 
experience  which  was  their  original  ground.  Israel, 
therefore,  who  originally  followed  righteousness  because 
he  felt  that  it  tended  to  life,  might  and  did  naturally  come 
at  last  to  follow  it  because  it  would  enable  him  to  stand 
before  the  Son  of  Man  at  his  coming,  and  to  share 
in  the  triumph  of  the  saints. 

'  But  this  later  belief  has  not  the  same  character  as 
the  belief  which  it  is  thus  set  to  confirm.  It  is  a  kind  of 
fairy-tale,  which  a  man  tells  himself,  which  no  one, 
we  grant,  can  prove  impossible  to  turn  out  true,  but 
which  no  one,  also,  can  prove  certain  to  turn  out  true. 
It  is  exactly  what  is  expressed  by  the  German  word  '  Aber- 
glaube,'  extra-hdief,  belief  beyond  what  is  certain  and 
verifiable.  Our  word  '  superstition '  had  by  its  derivation 
this  same  meaning,  but  it  has  come  to  be  used  in  a  merely 
bad  sense,  and  to  mean  a  childish  and  craven  religiosity. 
With  the  German  word  it  is  not  so ;  therefore  Goethe 
can  say  with  propriety  and  truth  :  '  Abei-glaiihe  is  the 
poetry  of  life, — der  Aberglatibe  ist  die  Poesie  des  Lebens.^ 
It  is  so  ;  ext7'a-belief,  that  which  we  hope,  augur,  imagine, 
is  the  poetry  of  life,  and  has  the  rights  of  poetry.     But  it 


yS  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

is  not  science  ;  and  yet  it  tends  always  to  imagine  itself 
science,  to  substitute  itself  for  science,  to  make  itself  the 
ground  of  the  very  science  out  of  which  it  has  grown. 
The  Messianic  ideas,  which  were  the  poetry  of  life  to 
Israel  in  the  age  when  Christ  came,  did  this ;  and  it  is 
the  more  important  to  mark  that  they  did  it,  because 
similar  ideas  have  so  signally  done  the  same  thing  to 
popular  Christianity. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  79 


CHAPTER   III. 

RELIGION   NEW-GIVEN. 

Jesus  Christ  was  undoubtedly  the  very  last  sort  of 
Messiah  whom  the  Jews  expected.  Christian  theologians 
say  confidently  that  the  characters  of  humility,  obscure- 
ness,  and  depression,  were  commonly  attributed  to  the 
Jewish  Messiah ;  and  even  Bishop  Butler,  in  general  the 
most  severely  exact  of  writers,  gives  countenance  to  this 
error.  What  is  true  is,  that  we  find  these  characters  at- 
tributed to  some  one  by  the  prophets  ;  that  we  attribute 
them  to  Christ ;  that  Christ  is  for  us  the  Messiah,  and 
that  Christ  they  suit.  But  for  the  prophets  themselves, 
and  for  the  Jews  who  heard  and  read  them,  these  cha- 
racters of  lowliness  and  depression  belonged  to  God's  chas- 
tened servant,  the  idealised  Israel.  When  Israel  had  been 
purged  and  renewed  by  these,  the  Messiah  was  to  appear ; 
but  with  glory  and  power  for  his  attributes,  not  humility 
and  weakness.  It  is  impossible  to  resist  acknowledging 
this,  if  we  read  the  Bible  to  find  from  it  what  those  wha 


So  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

wrote  it  really  intended  to  think  and  say,  and  not  to  put 
in  it  what  we  wish  them  to  have  thought  and  said.  To 
find  in  Jesus  the  genuine  Jewish  Messiah,  or  to  find  in 
him  the  Son  of  Man  of  Daniel,  one  coming  with  the  clouds 
of  heaven  and  having  universal  dominion  given  him, 
must  certainly,  to  a  Jew,  have  been  extremely  difficult. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  undoubtedly  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment the  germ  of  Christianity.  In  developing  this  germ 
lay  the  future  of  righteousness  itself,  of  Israel's  primary 
and  immortal  concern  \  and  the  incomparable  greatness 
of  the  religion  founded  by  Christ  comes  from  his  having 
developed  it.  Jesus  Christ  is  not  the  Messiah  to  whom 
the  hopes  of  his  nation  pointed ;  and  yet  Christendom 
with  perfect  justice  has  made  him  the  Messiah,  because  he 
alone  took,  when  his  nation  was  on  another  and  a  false 
tack,  a  way  obscurely  indicated  in  the  Old  Testament, 
and  the  one  only  possible  and  successful  way,  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  Messiah's  function : — to  bring  in 
everlasting  righteousness.     Let  us  see  how  this  was. 

Religion  in  the  Old  Testament  is  a  matter  of  national 
and  social  conduct  mainly.  First,  it  consists  in  devotion 
to  Israel's  God,  the  Eternal  who  loveth  righteousness,  and 
of  separation  from  other  nations  whose  concern  for 
righteousness  was  less  fervent,  of  abhorrence  of  their 
idolatries  which  were  sure  to  bewilder  and  diminish  this 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN. 


fervent  concern.  Secondly,  it  consists  in  doing  justice, 
hating  all  wrong,  robbery,  and  oppression,  abstaining 
from  insolence,  lying,  and  slandering.  •  The  Jews'  polity, 
their  theocracy,  was  of  such  immense  importance,  be- 
cause religion,  when  conceived  as  having  its  existence 
in  these  national  and  social  duties  mainly,  requires 
a  polity  to  put  itself  forth  in  ;  and  the  Jews'  polity  was 
adapted  to  religion  so  conceived.  But  this  religion,  as  it 
developed  itself,  was  by  no  means  fully  worthy  of  the 
intuition  out  of  which  it  had  grown.  We  have  seen  how, 
in  its  intuition  of  God, — of  that  not  ourselves  of  which  all 
mankind  form  some  conception  or  other, — as  the  Eternal 
that  makes  for  righteousness^  the  Hebrew  race  found  the 
revelation  needed  to  breathe  emotion  into  the  laws  of 
morality,  and  to  make  morality  religion.  This  revelation 
is  the  capital  fact  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  the  source 
of  its  grandeur  and  power.  But  it  is  evident  that  this 
revelation  lost,  as  time  went  on,  its  nearness  and  clear- 
ness; and  that  for  the  mass  of  the  Hebrews  their  God 
came  to  be  a  mere  magnified  and  non-natural  man,  like 
the  God  of  our  popular  religion  now,  who  has  commanded 
certain  courses  of  conduct  and  attached  certain  sanctions 
to  them. 

And  though  prophets  and  righteous  men,  among  the 
Hebrews,  might  preserve  always  the  immediate  and  truer 

G 


82  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

apprehension  of  their  God  as  the  Eierjial  who  makes  for 
righteousness,  they  in  vain  tried  to  communicate  this  ap- 
prehension to  the-^mass  of  their  countrymen.  They  had, 
indeed,  a  special  difficulty  to  contend  with  in  communi- 
cating it ;  and  the  difficulty  was  this.  Those  courses  of 
conduct,  which  Israel's  intuition  of  the  Eternal  had 
originally  touched  with  emotion  and  made  religion,  lay 
chiefly,  we  have  seen,  in  the  line  of  national  and  social 
duties.  By  reason  of  the  stage  of  their  owm  growth  and 
the  world's,  at  which  this  revelation  found  the  Hebrews, 
the  thing  could  not  well  be  otherwise.  And  national 
and  social  duties  are  peculiarly  capable  of  a  mechanical, 
exterior  performance,  in  which  the  heart  has  no  share. 
One  may  observe  rites  and  ceremonies,  hate  idolatry, 
abstain  from  murder  and  theft  and  false  witness,  and  yet 
have  one's  inward  thoughts  bad,  callous,  and  disordered. 
Then  even  the  admitted  duties  themselves  come  to  be 
ill-discharged  or  set  at  nought,  because  the  emotion 
which  was  the  only  certain  security  for  their  good  dis- 
charge is  wanting.  The  very  power  of  religion,  as  we 
have  seen,  Hes  in  its  bringing  emotion  to  bear  on  our  rules 
of  conduct,  and  thus  making  us  care  for  them  so  much, 
consider  them  so  deeply  and  reverentially,  that  we  sur- 
mount the  great  practical  difficulty  of  acting  in  obedience 
to  them,  and  follow  them  heartily  and  easily.     Therefore 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  83 


the  Israelites,  when  they  lost  their  primary  intuition  and 
the  deep  feeling  which  went  with  it,  were  perpetually 
idolatrous,  perpetually  slack  or  niggardly  in  the  service 
of  Jehovah,  perpetually  violators  of  judgment  and  justice. 
The  prophets  earnestly  reminded  their  nation  of  the 
superiority  of  judgment  and  justice  to  any  exterior  cere- 
mony like  sacrifice.  But  judgment  and  justice  them- 
selves, as  Israel  in  general  conceived  them,  have  some- 
thing exterior  in  them  ;  now,  what  was  wanted  was  more 
i?twardness,  more  feeling.  This  was  given  by  adding 
mercy  and  humbleness  to  judgment  and  justice.  Mercy 
and  humbleness  are  something  inward,  they  are  affections 
of  the  heart.  And  even  in  the  Proverbs  these  appear  : 
*  The  merciful  man  doeth  good  to  his  own  soul ; '  '  He 
that  hath  mercy  on  the  poor,  happy  is  he  ; '  '  Honour 
shall  uphold  the  humble  in  spirit ; '  '  When  pride  cometh, 
shame  cometh,  but  with  the  lowly  is  wisdom.'  So  that 
Micah  asked  his  nation  :  'What  doth  the  Eternal  require 
of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy^  and  to  walk 
humbly  with  thy  God  ?  ' — adding  mercy  and  humility  to 
the  old  judgment  and  justice.  But  a  further  develop- 
ment is  given  to  humbleness,  when  the  second  Isaiah  adds 
contrition  to  it :  '  I '  (the  Eternal)  '  dwell  with  him  that  is 
of  a  contrite  and  humble  spirit ; '  or  when  the  Psalmist 


8;  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

says,  '  The  sacrifices  of  God  are  a  broken  spirit ;  a  broken 
and  a  contrite  /iea?'t,  O  God,  thou  wilt  not  despise  ! ' 

This  is  personal  religion ;  reHgion  consisting  in  the 
inward  feeling  and  disposition  of  the  individual  himself, 
rather  than  in  the  performancce  of  outward  acts  towards 
religion  or  society.  It  is  the  essence  of  Christianity,  it  is 
what  the  Jews  needed,  it  is  the  line  in  which  their  religion 
was  ripe  'for  development ; — and  it  appears  in  the  Old 
Testament.  Still,  in  the  Old  Testament  it  by  no  means 
comes  out  fully.  The  leaning,  there,  is  to  make  religion 
social  rather  than  personal,  an  affair  of  outward  duties 
rather  than  of  inward  dispositions.  Soon  after  the  very 
words  we  have  just  quoted  from  him,  the  second  Isaiah 
adds  :  '  If  thou  take  away  from  the  midst  of  thee  the  yoke, 
the  putting  forth  of  the  finger  and  speaking  vanity,  and  if 
thou  draw  out  thy  soul  to  the  hungry,  and  satisfy  the 
afflicted  soul,  then  shall  thy  light  rise  in  obscurity  and 
thy  darkness  be  as  the  noon-day,  and  the  Eternal  shall 
guide  thee  continually  and  make  fat  thy  bones.'  This 
stands,  or  at  least  appears  to  stand,  as  a  full  description 
of  righteousness ;  and  as  such,  it  is  unsatisfying. 

2. 

What  was  wanted,  then,  was  a  fuller  description  of 
righteousness.     Now,  it  is  clear  that  righteousness,  the 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN. 


central  object  of  Israel's  concern,  was  the  central  object  \ 
of  Jesus  Christ's  concern  also.  Of  the  development 
and  cardinal  points  of  his  teaching  we  shall  have  to 
speak  more  at  length  by-and-by;  all  we  have  to  do 
here  is  to  pass  them  in  a  rapid  preliminary  review. 
Israel  had  said  :  '  To  him  that  ordereth  his  conversation 
right  shall  be  shown  the  salvation  of  God.'  And  Christ  \ 
said  :  '  Except  your  righteousness  exceed  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,'— that  is,  of  the  very 
people  who  then  passed  for  caring  most  about  righteous- 
ness and  practising  it  most  rigidly, — '  ye  shall  in  no  wise 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'  But  righteousness 
had  by  Christ's  time  lost,  in  great  measure,  the  mighty  i 
impulse  which  emotion  gives ;  and  in  losing  this,  had  lost 
also  the  mighty  sanction  which  happiness  gives.  '  Thd 
whole  head  was  sick  and  the  whole  heart  faint;'  thei 
glad  and  immediate  sense  of  being  in  the  right  way,  ini 
the  way  of  peace,  was  gone  j  the  sense  of  being  wrong 
and  astray,  of  sin,  and  of  helplessness  under  sin,  was  op- 
pressive.  The  thing  was,  by  giving  a  fuller  idea  of  right- 
eousness, to  reapply  emotion  to  it,  and  by  thus  reapplying 
emotion,  to  disperse  the  feeling  of  being  amiss  and  help- 
less, to  give  the  sense  of  being  right  and  effective ;  to 
restore,  in  short,  to  righteousness  the  sanction  of  happi- 
ness. 


86  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


f  But  this  could  only  be  done  by  attending  to  that 
inward  world  of  feelings  and  dispositions  which  Judaism 
had  too  much  neglected.  The  first  need,  therefore,  for 
Israel  at  that  time,  was  to  make  religion  cease  to  be 
mainly  a  national  and  social  matter,  and  become  mainly 
a  personal  matter,  '  Thou  blind  Pharisee,  cleanse  first 
the  mside  of  the  cup,  that  the  outside  may  be  clean  also !' 
— this  was  the  very  ground-principle  in  Christ's  teaching. 
Instead  of  attending  so  much  to  your  outward  acts, 
attend,  he  said,  first  of  all  to  your  inward  thoughts,  to 
the  state  of  your  heart  and  feelings.  This  doctrine  has 
perhaps  been  overstrained  and  misapplied  by  certain 
people  since ;  but  it  was  the  lesson  which  at  that  time 
was  above  all  needed.  It  is  a  great  progress  beyond 
even  that  advanced  maxim  of  pious  Jews  :  'To  do  justice 
and  judgment  is  more  acceptable  than  sacrifice.'  For  to 
do  justice  and  judgment  is  still,  as  we  have  remarked, 
something  external,  and  may  leave  the  feelings  un- 
touched, uncleared,  and  dead ;  what  was  wanted  was  to 
plough  up,  clear,  and  quicken  the  feelings  themselves. 
And  this  is  what  Jesus  Christ  did. 

'  My  son,  give  me  thy  heart !'  says  the  teacher  of  right- 
eousness in  the  golden  age  of  Israel.  And  when  Israel 
had  the  Eternal  revealed  to  him,  and  founded  our  religion, 
he  gave  his  heart.     But  the  time  came  when  this  direct 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  87 


vision  ceased,  and  Israel's  religion  was  a  mere  afifair  of 
tradition,  and  of  doctrines  and  rules  received  from  with- 
out. Then  it  might  be  truly  said  of  this  professed  servant 
of  the  Eternal :  '  This  j^eople  honour  me  with  their  lips, 
but  have  removed  their  heart  far  from  me,  and  their  fear 
toward  me  is  taught  by  the  precept  of  men.'  With  little 
or  no  power  of  distinguishing  between  what  was  rule  of 
ceremonial  and  what  was  rule  of  conduct,  they  followed 
the  prescriptions  of  their  religion  with  a  servile  and  sullen 
mind,  '  precept  upon  precept,  line  upon  line,  here  a  little 
and  there  a  little,'  and  no  end  to  it  all.  What  a  change 
since  the  days  when  it  \N2JS>joy  to  the  just  to  do  judgment ! 
The  prophets  saw  clearly  enough  the  evil,  nay,  they  even 
could  point  to  the  springs  which  must  be  touched  in 
order  to  work  a  cure ;  but  they  could  not  press  these 
springs  steadily  enough  or  skilfully  enough  to  work  the 
cure  themselves. 

Jesus  Christ's  new  and  different  way  of  putting  things 
was  the  secret  of  his  succeeding  where  the  prophets  could 
not.  And  this  new  way  he  had  of  putting  things  is  what 
is  indicated  by  the  expression  epieikeia,  best  rendered,  as 
we  have  elsewhere  said,i  by  these  two  words, — 'sweet 
reasonableness.'     For  that  which  is  epieikes  is  that  which 

^  St.  Paul  and  Protestantism,  p.  xix. 


88  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

has  an  air  of  truth  and  likelihood;  and  that  which  has  an 
air  of  truth  and  likelihood  is  prepossessing.  Now,  never 
were  utterances  concerning  conduct  and  righteousness, — 
Israel's  master-concern,  and  the  master-topic  of  the  New 
Testament  as  well  as  of  the  Old, — which  so  carried  with 
them  an  air  of  consummate  truth  and  likelihood  as 
Christ's  did ;  and  never,  therefore,  were  any  utterances 
so  irresistibly  prepossessing.  He  put  things  in  such  a 
way  that  his  hearer  was  led  to  take  each  rule  or  fact  of 
conduct  by  its  inward  side,  its  effect  on  the  heart  and 
character ;  then  the  reason  of  the  thing,  the  meaning  of 
what  had  been  mere  matter  of  blind  rule,  flashed  upon 
him.  The  hearer  could  distinguish  between  what  was  only 
ceremony,  and  what  was  conduct ;  and  the  hardest  rule  of 
conduct  came  to  appear  to  him  infinitely  reasonable  and 
natural,  and  therefore  infinitely  prepossessing.  A  return 
upon  themselves,  and  a  consequent  intuition  of  the  truth 
and  reason  of  the  matter  of  conduct  in  question,  gave 
men  for  right  action  the  clearness,  spirit,  energy,  happi- 
ness, they  had  lost. 

This  power  of  returning  upon  themselves,  and  seeing 
by  a  flash  the  truth  and  reason  of  things,  his  disciples 
learnt  of  Christ.  They  learnt  too,  from  observing  him 
and  his  example,  much  which,  without  perhaps  any 
conscious  process  of  being  apprehended  in  its  reason^ 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN. 


was  discerned  instinctively  to  be  true  and  life-giving  as 
soon  as  it  was  recommended  in  Christ's  words  and  illus- 
trated by  Christ's  example.  Two  lessons  in  particular 
they  learnt  in  this  way,  and  added  them  to  the  great 
lesson  of  self-examination  and  an  appeal  to  the  inner 
man,  with  which  they  started.  '  Whoever  will  come  after 
me,  let  him  reiioimce  himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily  and 
follow  7?ier  was  one  of  the  two;  ^Lea?'n  of  me  that  I  am 
mild  and  lowly  in  heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls!'  was  the  other.  Christ  made  his  followers  first 
look  within  and  examine  themselves ;  he  made  them  feel  , 
that  they  had  a  best  and  real  self  as  opposed  to  their 
ordinary  and  apparent  one,  and  that  their  happiness 
depended  on  saving  this  best  self  from  being  overborne. 
To  find  his  own  soul,  his  true  and  permanent  self,  became 
set  up  in  man's  view  as  his  chief  concern,  as  the  secret  of 
happiness;  and  so  it  really  is.  *  How  is  a  man  advantaged 
if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  suffer  the  loss  of  himself} ' 
was  the  searching  question  which  Jesus  made  men  ask 
themselves.  And  then,  by  recommending,  and  still  more 
by  himself  exemplifying  in  his  own  practice,  by  the  exhibi- 
tion in  himself  with  the  most  prepossessing  pureness,  clear- 
ness, and  beauty,  of  the  two  qualities  by  which  our  ordinary 
self  is  indeed  most  essentially  counteracted,  sclfre7iounce~ 
vient  and  mildness,  he  made  his  followers  feel  that   in 


90  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

these  qualities  lay  the  secret  of  their  best  self;  that  to  at- 
tain them  was  in  the  highest  degree  requisite  and  natural, 
•and  that  a  man's  whole  happiness  depended  upon  it. 

Self-examination,  self- renouncement,  and  mildness, 
were,  therefore,  the  great  means  by  which  Jesus  Christ 
renewed  righteousness  and  religion.  All  these  means  are 
indicated  in  the  Old  Testament :  God  requireth  truth  in  the 
inward  parts ;  Not  doing  thine  oivn  icays,  nor  finding 
thine  own  pleasure;  Before  honour  is  humility.  But  how 
far  more  strongly  are  they  forced  upon  the  attention  in 
the  New  Testament,  and  set  up  clearly  as  the  central 
mark  for  our  endeavours !  Thou  blind  Pharisee,  cleanse 
first  the  inside  of  the  cup  that  the  outside  may  he  clean  also! 
Whoever  will  come  after  me,  let  him  renounce  himself  and 
take  up  his  cross  daily  and  follow  me  I  Learn  of  me  that 
I  am  mild  and  lowly  in  heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto 
your  souls  I  So  that,  although  personal  religion  is  clearly 
present  in  the  Old  Testament,  nevertheless  these  injunc- 
tions of  the  New  Testament  effect  so  much  more  for  the 
extrication  and  establishment  of  personal  religion  than 
the  general  exhortations  in  the  Old  to  offer  the  sacrifice  of 
righteousness,  to  do  judgme?it,  that,  comparatively  with  the 
Old,  the  New  Testament  may  be  said  to  have  really 
founded  inward  and  personal  religion.  While  the  Old 
Testament  says  :  Attend  to  conduct  I  the  New  Testament 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN. 


says  :  Attend  to  the  feelings  and  dispositions  wJwice  conduct 
proceeds  I  And  as  attending  to  conduct  had  very  much 
degenerated  into  deadness  and  formaUty,  attending  to 
the  springs  of  conduct  was  a  revelation,  a  revival  of  intui- 
tive and  fresh  perceptions,  a  touching 'of  morals  with 
emotion,  a  discovering  of  religion,  similar  to  that  which 
had  been  effected  when  Israel,  struck  with  the  abiding 
power  not  of  man's  causing  which  makes  for  righteous- 
ness, and  filled  with  joy  and  awe  by  it,  had  in  the  old 
days  named  God  the  Eternal.  Man  came  under  a  new 
dispensation,  and  made  with  God  a  second  covenant. 


To  rivet  the  attention  on  the  indications  of  personal 
religion  furnished  by  the  Old  Testament ;  to  take  the 
humble,  inward,  and  suffering  '  servant  of  God '  of  the 
prophets,  and  to  elevate  this  as  the  Messiah,  the  seed  of 
Abraham  and  David,  in  whom  all  nations  should  be 
blessed,  whose  throne  should  be  as  the  days  of  heaven, 
who  should  redeem  his  people  and  restore  the  kingdom 
to  Israel, — was  a  work  of  the  highest  originality.  It  can- 
not, as  we  have  seen,  be  said  that  by  the  suffering  servant 
of  God  and  by  the  triumphant  Messiah,  the  prophets 
themselves  meant  one  and  the  same  person.     But  Ian- 


92  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


guage  of  hope  and  aspiration,  such  as  theirs,  is  in  its  very- 
nature  malleable.  Criticism  may  and  must  determine 
what  the  original  speakers  seem  to  have  directly  meant ; 
but  the  very  nature  of  their  language  justifies  a?iy  power- 
ful and  fruitful  application  of  it,  and  every  such  applica- 
tion may  be  said,  in  the  words  of  popular  religion,  to 
have  been  lodged  there  from  the  first  by  the  spirit  of 
God.  Certainly  it  was  a  somewhat  violent  exegetical 
proceeding,  to  fuse  together  into  one  personage  Daniel's 
Son  of  Man  coming  with  the  clouds  of  Heaven,  the  first 
Isaiah's  '  Branch  out  of  the  root  of  Jesse '  who  should 
smite  the  earth  with  the  rod  of  his  mouth  and  reign  in 
glory,  peace,  and  righteousness,  and  the  second  Isaiah's 
meek  and  afflicted  Servant  of  God  who  was  charged  with 
the  precious  message  of  a  golden  future; — to  fuse  to- 
gether in  one  these  three  by  no  means  identical  person- 
ages, to  add  to  them  the  sacrificial  lamb  of  the  passover 
and  of  the  temple-service  which  was  constantly  before  a 
Jew's  eyes,  to  add,  besides,  the  Prophet  like  to  himself 
whom  Moses  promised  to  the  children  of  Israel,  to  add, 
further,  the  Holy  One  of  Israel  the  Redeemer,  who  for 
the  prophets  was  the  Eternal  himself;  and  to  say,  that 
the  combination  thence  resulting  was  the  Messiah  or 
Christ  whom  all  the  prophets  meant  and  predicted,  and 
that  Jesus  was  this    Messiah,     To  us,  who  have  been 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  93 

fashioned  by  a  theology  whose  set  purpose  is  to  efface  all 
the  difficulties  in  such  a  combination,  and  to  make  it 
received  easily  and  unhesitatingly,  it  may  appear  natural ; 
in  itself,  and  with  the  elements  of  which  it  is  composed 
viewed  singly  and  impartially,  it  cannot  but  be  pro- 
nounced violent. 

But  the  elements  in  question  have  their  chief  use  and 
value,  we  repeat,  not  as  objects  of  criticism ;  they  belong 
of  right  to  whoever  can  best  possess  himself  of  them  for 
practice  and  edification.  Simply  of  the  Son  of  Man  coming 
in  the  clouds,  of  the  Branch  of  Jesse  smiting  the  earth  with 
the  rod  of  his  mouth,  slaying  the  wicked  with  his  breath, 
and  re-establishing  in  unexampled  splendour  David's 
kingdom,  nothing  could  be  made.  With  such  a  Messiah 
filling  men's  thoughts  and  hopes,  the  real  defects  of 
Israel  still  remained,  because  these  chiefly  proceeded 
from  Israel's  making  his  religion  too  much  a  national  and 
social  affair,  too  little  a  personal  affair.  But  a  Messiah 
who  did  not  strive  nor  cry,  who  was  oppressed  and 
afiflicted  without  opening  his  mouth,  who  worked  obscurely 
and  patiently,  yet  failed  not  nor  was  discouraged  until 
his  doctrine  made  its  way  and  transformed  the  world, — 
this  was  the  Messiah  whom  Israel  needed,  and  in  whom 
the  lost  greatness  of  Israel  could  be  restored  and  culmi- 
nate.    For  the  true  greatness  of  Israel  was  7'ighteoitsness ; 


94  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


and  only  by  an  inward  personal  religion  could  the  sense 
revive  of  what  righteousness  really  was, — revive  in  Israel 
and  bear  fruit  for  the  world. 

Instead,  then,  of  '  the  Root  of  David  who  should  set 
up  an  ensign  for  the  nations  and  assemble  the  outcasts  of 
Israel,'  Jesus  Christ  took  from  prophecy  and  made  pre- 
eminent '  the  wServant  whom  man  despiseth  and  the  people 
abhorreth,'  but  Svho  bringeth  good  tidings,  who  publisheth 
peace,  publisheth  salvation.'  And  instead  of  saying  like 
the  prophets  :  *  This  people  must  mend,  this  nation  must 
do  so  and  so,  Israel  must  follow  such  and  such  ways,' 
Christ  took  the  individual  Israelite  by  himself  apart, 
made  him  listen  for  the  voice  of  his  conscience,  and  said 
to  him  in  effect :  '  If  every  one  would  mend  one,  we 
should  have  a  new  world.'  So  vital  for  the  Jews  was  this 
change  of  character  in  their  religion,  that  the  Old  Testa- 
ment abounds,  as  we  have  said,  in  pointings  and  ap- 
proximations to  it ;  and  most  truly  might  Christ  say  to 
his  followers,  that  many  prophets  and  kings  had  desired, 
though  unavailingly,  to  see  the  things  which  his  disciples 
saw  and  heard. 

The  desire  felt  by  pious  Israelites  for  some  new  aspect 
of  religion  such  as  Christ  presented,  is,  undoubtedly,  the 
best  proof  of  its  timeliness  and  salutariness.  Perhaps 
New  Testament  witnesses  to  the  workings  of  this  desire 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  95- 

may  be  received  with  suspicion,  as  having  arisen  after  the 
event  and  when  the  new  ideal  of  Christ  had  become  es- 
tablished. Otherwise,  John  the  Baptist's  characterisation 
of  the  Messiah  as  '  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away 
the  sins  of  the  world,'  and  the  bold  Messianic  turn  given' 
in  the  twelfth  chapter  of  St  Matthew  to  the  prophecy 
there  quoted  from  the  forty-second  chapter  of  Isaiah,, 
would  be  evidence  of  the  highest  importance.  'A  bruised 
reed  breaketh  he  not,'  says  Isaiah  of  the  meek  servant. 
and  messenger  of  God,  '  and  a  glimmering  wick  quench- 
eth  he  not ;  he  declareth  judgment  with  truth ;  far  lands . 
wait  for  his  doctrine.'  '  A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not 
break,'  runs  the  passage  in  St.  Matthew,  'and  smoking 
flax  shall  he  not  quench,  until  he  send  forth  jiidgmait 
unto  victory :  in  his  name  shall  the  Gentiles  trust.'  The 
words,  until  he  send  forth  judgment  unto  victory^  words 
giving  a  clear  Messianic  stamp  to  the  personage  de- 
scribed, are  neither  in  the  original  Hebrew  nor  in  the 
Greek  of  the  Septuagint ; — where  did  the  Gospel-writer 
find  them  ?  If,  as  is  possible,  they  were  in  some  version 
of  Isaiah  then  extant,  they  prove  in  a  striking  way  the 
existence  and  strength  of  the  aspiration  which  Christ 
satisfied  by  transforming  the  old  popular  ideal  of  the 
Messiah.  But  there  are  in  any  case  signs  of  the  existence 
of  such  an  aspiration,  since  a  Jewish  commentator,  con- 


96  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


temporary,  probably,  with  the  Christian  era  but  not 
himself  a  Christian,  assigns  to  the  prophecy  a  Messianic 
intention.  And,  indeed,  the  rendering  of  the  final  words, 
in  his  name  shall  the  Gentiles  trusty  which  is  in  the  Greek 
of  the  Septuagint  as  well  as  in  that  of  St.  Matthew,  shows 
a  similar  leaning  in  the  Jews  of  Alexandria  some  two 
centuries  before  Christ. 

Signs  there  are  then,  without  doubt,  of  others  trying  to 
identify  the  Messiah  of  popular  hope, — the  triumphant 
Root  of  David,  the  mystic  Son  of  Man, — with  an  ideal  of 
meekness,  inwardness,  patience,  and  self-denial.  And  well 
might  reformers  try  to  effect  this  identification,  for  the 
true  line  of  Israel's  progress  lay  through  it !  But  not  he 
who  tries  makes  an  epoch,  but  he  who  effects  ;  and  the 
identification  which  was  needed  Jesus  effected.  Hence- 
forth the  true  Israelite  was,  undoubtedly,  he  who  allied 
himself  with  this  identification ;  who  perceived  its  incom- 
parable fniitfulness,  its  continuance  of  the  real  tradition 
of  Israel,  its  correspondence  with  the  ruling  idea  of  the 
Hebrew  spirit :  Through  I'ighteoiisness  to  ^happiness  !  or,  in 
Bible-words :  To  him  that  ordereth  his  conversation  right 
shall  he  shown  the  salvation  of  God!  That  the  Jewish 
nation  at  large,  and  its  rulers,  refused  to  accept  the  iden- 
tification, shows  simply  that  want  of  power  to  penetrate 
through  wraps  and  appearances  to  the  essence  of  things, 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  97 

which  the  majority  of  mankind  ahvays  display.  The 
national  and  social  character  of  their  theocracy  was  every- 
thing to  the  Jews,  and  they  could  see  no  blessings  in  a 
revolution  which  annulled  it. 

It  has  often  been  remarked,  that  the  Puritans  are  like 
the  Jews  of  the  Old  Testament ;  and  Mr.  Froude  thinks 
he  defends  the  Puritans  by  saying  that  they,  like  the  Jews 
of  the  Old  Testament,  had  their  hearts  set  on  a  theocracy, 
on  a  fashioning  of  politics  and  society  to  suit  the  govern- 
ment of  God.  How  strange  that  he  does  not  perceive 
that  he  thus  passes,  and  with  justice,  the  gravest  condem- 
nation on  the  Puritans  as  followers  of  yesus  Christ!  At 
the  Christian  era  the  time  had  passed,  in  religion,  for  out- 
ward adaptations  of  this  kind,  and  for  all  care  about 
establishing  or  abolishing  them.  The  time  had  come  for 
in\vardness  and  self-reconstruction, — a  time  to  last  till  the 
self-reconstruction  is  fully  achieved.  It  was  the  error  of 
the  Jews  that  they  did  not  perceive  this  ;  and  the  old  error 
of  the  Jews  the  Puritans,  without  the  Jews' excuse,  faithfully 
repeated.  And  the  blunder  of  both  had  the  same  cause, — 
a  want  of  tact  to  perceive  what  is  really  most  wanted  for 
the  attainment  of  their  own  professed  ideal,  the  reign 
of  righteousness. 

When  Jesus  appeared,  his  disciples  were  those  who  did 
7iot  make  this  blunder.     They  were,  in  general,  simple 

H 


98  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

souls,  without  pretensions  which  Christ's  new  reHgious 
ideal  cut  short,  or  self-consequence  which  it  mortified; 
and  any  Israelite  who  was,  on  the  one  hand,  not  warped 
by  personal  pretensions  and  self-consequence,  and  on  the 
other,  not  dull  of  feeling  and  gross  of  life  like  the  common 
multitude,  might  well  be  open  to  the  spell  which,  after 
all,  was  the  great  confimiation  of  Christ's  religion,  as  it  was 
the  great  confirmation  of  the  original  religion  of  Israel, — 
the  spell  of  its  happiness.  '  Be  glad,  O  ye  righteous,  and 
rejoice  in  the  Eternal,'  the  old  and  lost  prerogative  of  Israel, 
Christianity  offered  to  make  again  a  living  and  true  word 
to  him. 

4. 
For  we  have  already  remarked,  how  it  is  the  great 
achievement  of  the  Israel  of  the  Old  Testament,  happiness 
being  mankind's  confessed  end  and  aim,  to  have  more 
than  anyone  else  felt,  and  more  than  anyone  else  suc- 
ceeded in  making  others  feel,  that  fo  righteousness  belongs 
happiness.  Now,  it  will  be  denied  by  no  one  that  Christ, 
in  his  turn,  was  eminently  characterised  by  professing  to 
bring,  and  by  being  felt  to  bring,  happiness.  All  the 
words  that  belong  to  his  mission, — gospel^  kingdom  of  God, 
saviour,  grace,  peace,  living  water,  brfad  of  life, — are  brim- 
ful of  promise  and  of  joy.  '  I  am  come,' he  said,  '  that  ye 
might  have  life,  and  that  ye   might  have  it  more  abun- 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  99 

dantly ; '  '  Come  to  me,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls-,'  'I  speak,  that  my  disciples  may  have  my  Joy 
fulfilled  in  themselves.^  That  the  operation,  professed  and 
actual,  of  this  '  son  of  peace '  was  to  replace  his  followers 
in  '  the  way  of  peace,'  no  one  can  question ;  the  only 
matter  of  dispute  can  be  ho7u  he  replaced  them  there. 

Now,  that  we  may  see  this  more  clearly,  let  us  return 
for  a  moment  to  what  we  said  of  condicct., — of  conduct, 
which  we  found  to  be  three-fourths,  at  least,  of  human 
life,  and  the  object  with  which  religion  is  concerned. 
We  said  of  conduct,  that  it  is  the  simplest  thing  in  ^ 
the  world  as  far  as  knowledge  is  concerned,  but  the 
hardest  thing  in  the  world  as  far  as  doing  is  concerned.  - 
We  added  that  going  7'ight,  succeeding.,  in  the  manage 
ment  of  this  vast  concern,  gave  naturally  the  liveliest 
possible  sense  of  satisfaction  and  happiness;  that  at- 
tending to  it  was  naturally  the  secret  of  success,  that 
attachment  makes  us  attend,  and  that  whatever,  therefore, 
made  us  love  to  attend  to  it  must  inspire  us  with  gratitude. 
We  found  the  central  point  of  the  religion  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  Israel's  keen  perception  of  a  power,  not 
onrselves,  which  makes  for  righteousness  and  disposes  us 
to  attend  to  it,  and  in  his  energy  of  grateful  self-surrender 
to  this  power.  Let  us  take,  to  guide  ourselves  in  the 
New  Testament,  the  help  of  the  clue  furnished  by  all  this. 
H  2 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


First,  as  to  the  extreme  simplicity  of  the  matter  con- 
cerned ;  a  matter  sophisticated,  overlaid,  and  hidden  in  a 
thousand  ways.  The  artless,  unschooled  perception  of  a 
child  is,  Christ  says,  the  right  organ  for  apprehending  it : 
'■  Whosoever  does  not  receive  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a 
little  child ^  cannot  enter  therein.'  And  yet  it  is  so  diffi- 
cult of  attainment  that  it  seems  we  cannot  attain  it  of  our- 
selves :  '  No  man  can  come  to  me  unless  it  be  given  him 
of  my  Father.'  The  things  to  be  done  are  so  simple  and 
necessary  that  the  doctrine  about  them  proves  itself  as 
soon  as  we  do  them  :  '  Whoever  will  do  God's  will,  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God.'  Only  it  is 
indispensable  to  do  them ;  speculating  and  professing  are 
absolutely  useless,  here,  without  doing  :  '  Why  call  ye  me, 
Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the  things  that  I  say  ? '  The 
great  and  learned  people,  the  masters  in  Israel,  have  their 
authoritative  version  of  what  righteousness  and  the  will 
of  God  is,  of  what  the  ideal  for  the  Jewish  nation  is,  of 
the  correct  way  to  interpret  the  prophets.  But :  '  Judge 
not  according  to  the  appearance,  but  judge  righteous 
judgment;'  '  beware  of  iiisincerity  ; '  '  God  sees  the  heart; 
what  comes  from  within^  that  defiles  us.'  The  new  cove- 
nant, the  New  Testamejtt,  consists  in  the  reign  of  this  very 
inwardness,  in  a  state  of  things  when  God  '  puts  his  law 
in  the  inward  parts  and  writes  it  in  the  heart,'  in  conscience 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  loi 

being  made  the  test.  You  can  see,  Jesus  says,  you  can  see 
the  leading  reHgionists  of  the  Jewish  nation,  with  the 
current  notions  about  righteousness,  God's  will,  and  the 
meaning  of  prophecy,  you  can  see  them  saying  and  not 
doing,  full  of  fierce  temper,  pride,  and  sensuality ; — this 
shows  they  can  be  but  blind  guides  for  you.  The  saviour 
of  Israel  is  he  who  makes  Israel  use  his  conscience  simply 
and  sincerely,  who  makes  him  change  and  sweeten  his 
temper,  conquer  and  annul  his  sensuality.  The  prophets 
all  point  to  such  a  saviour,  and  he  is  the  Messiah,  and 
the  promised  happiness  to  Israel  is  in  him  and  in  his  reign. 
He  is,  in  the  exalted  language  of  prophecy,  the  holy  one 
of  God,  the  son  of  God,  the  beloved  of  God,  the  anointed 
of  God,  the  son  of  man  in  an  eminent  and  unique  sense, 
the  Messiah  and  Christ ;  in  plainer  language,  he  is  *  a 
man  who  tells  you  the  truth  which  he  has  heard  of  God;* 
who  came  not  of  himself  and  speaks  not  of  himself,  but 
who  '  came  forth  from  God,' — from  the  original  God  of 
Israel's  worship,  the  God  of  righteousness  and  of  happi- 
ness joined  to  righteousness, — '  and  is  come  to  you.' 
Israel  is  perpetually  talking  of  God  and  calling  him 
his  Father,  and  '  everyone,'  says  Christ,  '  who  hears  the 
Father  comes  to  vie,  for  I  know  Him,  and  know  His  will, 
and  utter  His  word.'  God's  will  and  word,  in  the  Old 
Testament,  was  righteousness ;  in  the  New  Testament,  it 


I02  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


is  righteousness  explained  to  have  its  essence  in  inward- 
71CSS,  mildness^  and  self-rmouncemeiit.  This  is,  in  sub- 
stance, the  word  of  Christ  which  he  who  hears  'shall 
never  see  death  ; '  of  which  he  who  follows  it  '  shall  know 
by  experience  whether  it  be  of  God.' 

But  as  the  Israel  of  the  Old  Testament  did  not  say  or 
feel  that  he  followed  righteousness  by  his  own  power,  or 
out  of  self-interest  and  self-love,  but  said  and  felt  that  he 
followed  it  in  thankful  self-surrender  to  '  the  Eternal  who 
loveth  righteousness,'  and  that  'the  Eternal  ordereth  a 
good  man's  going  and  maketh  his  ivay  acceptable  to  Himself^ 
— so,  in  the  restoration  effected  by  Jesus,  the  motive 
v/hich  is  of  force  is  not  the  moral  motive  that  inwardness, 
mildness,  and  self-renouncement  make  for  man's  happi- 
ness, but  a  far  stronger  motive,  full  of  ardent  affection 
and  gratitude,  and  which,  though  it  really  has  its  ground 
and  confirmation  in  the  fact  that  inwardness,  mildness,  and 
self-renouncement  do  make  for  man's  happiness,  yet  keeps 
no  consciousness  of  this  as  its  ground.  For  it  acquired 
a  far  surer  ground  in  personal  devotion  to  Christ,  who 
brought  the  doctrine  to  his  disciples  and  made  a  passage 
for  it  into  their  hearts  ;  in  believing  that  Christ  is  come 
from  God,  following  Christ,  loving  Christ.  And,  in  the 
happiness  which  thus  believing  in  him,  following  him, 
and  loving  him  gives,  it  found  the  mightiest  of  sanc- 
tions. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  103 


And  thus  was  the  great  doctrine  of  the  Old  Testament, 
To  righteousness  belongs  happiness!  made  a  true  and 
potent  word  agam.  Christ  was  the  Messiah  to  restore 
the  all  things  of  Israel, — righteousness,  and   happiness 

r  1/ 

with  righteousness ;  to  bring  light  and  recovery  after  \  n}'^ 
long  days  of  darkness  and  ruin,  and  to  make  good  the 
belief  written  on  Israel's  heart :  The  7'ighteous  is  an  ever- 
lasting foundation  I  But  we  have  seen  how  in  the  hopes 
of  the  nation  and  in  the  promises  of  prophecy  this  true 
and  vital  belief  of  Israel  was  mixed  with  a  quantity  of 
what  we  have  called  Aberglaube  or  extra-belief,  adding  all 
manner  of  shape  and  circumstance  to  the  original  thought. 
The  kingdom  of  David  and  Solomon  was  to  be  restored 
on  a  grander  scale,  the  enemies  of  Israel  were  to  lick 
the  dust,  kings  were  to  bring  gifts  ;  there  was  to  be  the 
Son  of  Man  coming  in  the  clouds,  judgment  given  to  the 
saints  of  the  Most  High,  and  an  eternal  reign  of  the 
saints  afterwards. 

Now,  most  of  this  has  a  poetical  value,  some  of  it  has  a 
moral  value.  All  of  it  is,  in  truth,  a  testimony  to  the 
strength  of  Israel's  idea  of  righteousness.  For  the  order 
of  its  growth  is,  as  we  have  seen,  this  :  '  To  I'ighteousness 
belongs  happiness  ./—this  sure  rule  is  often  broken  in  the 


I04  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

state  of  things  which  now  is ;  there  must,  therefore,  be 
in  store  for  us,  in  the  future,  a  state  of  things  where  it  will 
hold  good.'  But  none  of  it  has  a  scientific  value,  a 
certitude  arising  from  proof  and  experience.  And  indeed 
it  cannot  have  this,  for  it  professes  to  be  an  anticipa- 
tion of  a  state  of  things  not  yet  actually  experienced. 

But  human  nature  is  such,  that  the  mind  easily  dwells 
on  an  anticipation  of  this  kind  until  we  come  to  forget 
the  order  in  which  it  arose,  place  it  first  when  it  is  by  rights 
second,  and  make  it  support  that  by  which  it  is  in  truth 
supported.  And  so  there  had  come  to  be  many  Israelites, 
— most  likely  they  were  the  great  majority  of  their  nation, — 
who  supposed  that  righteousness  was  to  be  followed,  not 
out  of  thankful  self-surrender  to  '  the  Eternal  who  loveth 
righteousness,'  but  because  the  Ancient  of  Days  was 
to  sit  before  long,  and  judgment  was  to  be  given  to 
the  saints  and  they  were  to  possess  the  kingdom,  and 
from  the  kingdom  those  who  did  not  follow  righteousness 
were  to  be  excluded.  From  this  way  of  conceiving  reli- 
gion came  naturally  the  religious  condition  of  the  Jews  as 
Christ  at  his  coming  found  it ;  and  from  which,  by  his 
new  and  living  way  of  presenting  the  Messiah,  he  sought 
to  extricate  the  whole  nation,  and  did  extricate  his 
disciples.  He  did  extricate  these,  in  that  he  fixed  their 
thoughts  upon  himself  and  upon  an  ideal  of  inwardness. 


RELIGION  NEW-GIVEN.  lo: 


mildness,  and  self-renouncement,  instead  of  a  phantas- 
magory  of  outward  grandeur  and  self-assertion.  But  at 
the  same  time  the  whole  train  of  extra-belief,  or  Abcrglaiibc, 
which  had  attached  itself  to  Israel's  old  creed  :  The 
righteous  is  an  eve7lasting  foundation  !  transferred  itself 
to  the  new  creed  brought  by  Christ  :  /  am  the  door  !  by 
me  if  any  ma7i  e7iter  i/i,  he  shall  be  saved  !  And  there  arose, 
accordingly,  a  new  Abeiglaube  like  the  old.  The  mild, 
inward,  self-renouncing  and  sacrificed  Servant  of  the 
Eternal,  the  new  and  better  Messiah,  was  yet,  before  the 
present  generation  passed,  to  come  on  the  clouds  of 
heaven  in  power  and  glory  like  the  Messiah  of  Daniel, 
to  gather  by  tnmipet-call  his  elect  from  the  four  winds, 
and  to  set  his  apostles  on  twelve  thrones  judging  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  The  motive  of  Christianity, — 
which  was,  in  truth,  that  pure  souls  '  knew  the  voice '  of 
Jesus  as  sheep  know  the  voice  of  their  shepherd,  and 
felt  after  seeing  and  hearing  him  that  his  doctrine  and 
ideal  was  what  they  wanted,  that  he  was  '  indeed  the 
saviour  of  the  world,'— this  simple  motive  became  a  mixed 
motive,  adding  to  its  first  contents  a  vast  extra-belief  oi  a 
phantasmagorical  Advent  of  Christ,  a  resurrection  and 
judgment,  Christ's  adherents  glorified,  his  rejectors 
punished  everlastingly. 

And  when  the  generation,  for  which  this  Advent  was 


io6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

first  fixed,  had  passed  away  without  it,  Christians  dis- 
covered by  a  process  of  criticism  common  enough  in 
popular  theology,  but  by  which,  as  Bishop  Butler  says  of 
a  like  kind  of  process,  '  anything  may  be  made  out  of 
anything,' — they  discovered  that  the  Advent  had  never 
really  been  fixed  for  that  first  generation  by  the  writers 
of  the  New  Testament,  but  that  it  was  foretold,  and  cer- 
tainly in  store,  for  a  later  time.  So  the  Aberglaiibe  was 
perpetuated,  placed  out  of  reach  of  all  practical  test,  and 
made  stronger  than  ever.  With  the  multitude,  this 
Aherglaiibe  or  extra-belief  inevitably  came  soon  to  surpass 
the  original  conviction  in  attractiveness  and  seeming 
certitude.  The  future  and  the  miraculous  engaged  the 
chief  attention  of  Christians ;  and,  in  accordance  with 
this  strain  of  thought,  they  more  and  more  rested  the 
proof  of  Christianity,  not  on  its  internal  evidence,  but  on 
prediction  and  miracle. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  PROPHECY,  107 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   PROOF    FROM    PROPHECY. 

^  Aberglaube  is  the  poetry  of  life.'  That  men  should, 
by  help  of  their  imagination,  take  short  cuts  to  what 
they  ardently  desire,  whether  the  triumph  of  Israel  or 
the  triumph  of  Christianity,  should  tell  themselves  fairy- 
tales about  it,  should  make  these  fairy-tales  the  basis  for 
what  is  far  more  sure  and  solid  than  the  fairy-tales,  the 
desire  itself, — all  this  has  in  it,  we  repeat,  nothing  which 
is  not  natural,  nothing  blameable.  Nay,  the  region  of 
our  hopes  and  presentiments  extends,  as  we  have  also 
said,  far  beyond  the  region  of  what  we  can  know  with 
certainty.  What  we  reach  but  by  hope  and  presentiment 
may  yet  be  true ;  and  he  would  be  a  narrow  reasoner  who 
denied,  for  instance,  all  validity  to  the  idea  of  immor- 
tality, because  this  idea  rests  on  presentiment  mainly, 
and  does  not  admit*  of  certain  demonstration.  In  reli- 
gion, above  all,  extra-belief  W\r\.  itself  no  matter,  assuredly, 
for  blame.     The  object  of  religion  is  conduct ;  and  if  a 


io8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


man  helps  himself  in  his  conduct  by  taking  an 
object  of  hope  and  presentiment  as  if  it  were  an 
object  of.  certainty,  he  may  even  be  said  to  gain  thereby 
an  advantage. 

And  yet  there  is  always  a  drawback  to  a  man's  advan- 
tage in  thus  treating,  in  religion  and  conduct,  what  is 
extra-belief  and  not  certain  as  if  it  were  matter  of  cer- 
tainty, and  in  making  it  his  ground  of  action  ; — he  pays 
for  it.  The  time  eomes  when  he  discovers  that  it  is  7iot 
certain ;  and  then  the  whole  certainty  of  religion  seems 
discredited,  and  the  basis  of  conduct  gone.  This  danger 
attends  the  reliance  on  prediction  and  miracle  as  evi- 
dences of  Christianity.  They  have  been  attacked  as  a 
part  of  the  '  cheat '  or  '  imposture '  of  religion  and  of 
Christianity.  For  us,  religion  is  the  solidest  of  realities, 
and  Christianity  the  greatest  and  happiest  stroke  ever  yet 
made  for  human  perfection.  Prediction  and  miracle  were 
attributed  to  it  as  its  supports,  because  of  its  grandeur, 
and  because  of  the  awe  and  admiration  which  it  inspired. 
Generations  of  men  have  helped  themselves  to  hold  firmer 
to  it,  helped  themselves  in  conduct,  by  the  aid  of  these 
supports.  '  Miracles /r^z/<?,'  men  have  said  and  thought, 
*  that  the  order  of  physical  nature  is  not  fate,  nor  a  mere 
material  constitution  of  things,  but  the  subject  of  a  free, 


THE  PROOF  FROM  PROPHECY.  109 

omnipotent  Master.     Prophecy  fulfilled  proves  that  neither  j 
fate  nor  man  are  masters  of  the  world.'  ^ 

And  to  take  prophecy  first.  '  The  conditions/  it  is 
said,  '  which  form  the  true  conclusive  standard  of  a  pro- 
phetic inspiration  are  these :  That  the  prediction  be 
known  to  have  been  promulgated  before  the  event ;  that 
the  event  be  such  as  could  not  have  been  foreseen,  when 
it  was  predicted,  by  any  effort  of  human  reason ;  and  that 
the  event  and  the  prediction  correspond  together  in  a 
clear  accomplishment.  There  are  prophecies  in  Scripture 
answering  to  the  standard  of  an  absolute  proof  Their 
publication,  their  fulfilment,  their  supernatural  prescience, 
are  all  fully  ascertained.'  ^  On  this  sort  of  ground  men 
came  to  rest  the  proof  of  Christianity. 


Now,  it  may  be  said,  indeed,  that  a  prediction  fulfilled, 
an  exhibition  of  supernatural  prescience,  proves  nothing 
for  or  against  the  truth  and  necessity  of  conduct  and 
righteousness.  But  it  must  be  allowed,  notwithstanding, 
that  while  human  nature  is  what  it  is,  the  mass  of  men  are 
likely  to  listen  more  to  a  teacher  of  righteousness,  if  he 
accompanies  his  teaching  by  an  exhibition  of  supernatural 

^  Davison's  Discourses  on  Pt'ophccy  ;    Discourse  ii,  Part  2. 
-  Discourses  ix  and  xii. 


no  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


prescience.  And  what  were  called  the  *  signal  predictions' 
concerning  the  Christ  of  popular  theology,  as  they  stand 
in  our  Bibles,  had  and  have  undoubtedly  a  look  of  super- 
natural prescience.  The  employment  of  capital  letters, 
and  other  aids,  such  as  the  constant  use  of  the  future 
tense,  naturally  and  innocently  adopted  by  interpreters 
who  were  profoundly  convinced  that  Christianity  needed 
these  express  predictions  and  that  they  imist  be  in  the 
Bible,  enhanced,  certainly,  this  look ;  but  the  look,  even 
without  these  aids,  was  sufficiently  striking. 

Yes,  that  Jacob  on  his  death-bed  should  two  thousand 
years  before  Christ  have  '  been  enabled,'  as  the  phrase  is,  to 
foretell  to  his  son  Judah  that  '■  the  sceptre  shall  not  depart 
from  Judah  until  Shiloh  (or  the  Messiah)  come,  and  to  him 
shall  the  gathering  of  the  people  be,'  does  seem,  when  the 
explanation  is  put  with  it  that  the  Jewish  kingdom  lasted 
till  the  Christian  era  and  then  perished,  a  miracle  of  predic- 
tion in  favour  of  our  current  Christian  theology.  That 
Jeremiah  should  during  the  captivity  have  '  been  enabled  ' 
to  foretell,  in  Jehovah's  name  :  '  The  days  come  when  I 
will  raise  to  David  a  righteous  Branch  ;  in  his  days  Judah 
shall  be  saved,  and  Israel  shall  dwell  safely ;  and  this  is  the 
name  whereby  he  shall  be  called,  the  lord  our  right- 
eousness ! ' — does  seem  a  wonder  of  prediction  in  favour 
of  that  tenet  of  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son,  for  which 


THE  PROOF  FROM  PROPHECY.  m 

the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester  are  so  anxious 
to  do  something.  For  unquestionably  Jehovah  is  often 
spoken  of  as  the  saviour  of  Judah  and  Israel :  *  All 
flesh  shall  know  that  I  Jehovah  am  thy  saviour  and 
thy  redeemer,  the  mighty  one  of  Jacob ; '  and  in  the  pro- 
phecy given  above  as  Jeremiah's,  the  Branch  of  David  is 
clearly  identified  with  Jehovah.  Again,  that  David  should 
say :  *  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  on  my  right 
hand  until  I  make  thy  foes  thy  footstool,' — does  seem  a 
prodigy  of  prediction  to  the  same  effect.  And  so  long  as^ 
these  prophecies  stand  as  they  are  here  given,  they  no 
doubt  bring  to  Christianity  all  the  support  (and  with  the 
mass  of  mankind  this  is  by  no  means  inconsiderable)  which 
it  can  derive  from  the  display  of  supernatural  prescience. 
But  who  will  dispute  that  it  more  and  more  becomes 
known  that  these  prophecies  cannot  stand  as  we  have 
here  given  them  ?  Manifestly,  it  more  and  more  becomes 
known,  that  the  passage  from  Genesis,  with  its  mysterious 
Shiloh  and  the  gathering  of  the  people  to  him,  ^  is  rightly 

»  A  real  prediction,  of  the  kind  that  popular  religion  desires,  is  to 
be  found  in  Benjamin's  prophecy  of  the  coming,  in  the  last  days,  of 
the  King  of  Heaven  to  judge  Israel,  '  because  when  God  came  to 
them  in  the  flesh  they  did  not  believe  in  him  as  their  deliverer. ' 
But  this  prediction  occurs  in  an  apocryphal  Christian  writing-  of 
the  end  of  the  first  century,  the  Testaments  of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs. 
See  Fabricius,  Codex  Pseudepigraphus  Vetcris  Tesi^me7iti,  ii,  745. 


112  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

to  be  rendered  as  follows  :  '  The  pre-eminence  shall 
not  depart  from  Judah  so  long  as  the  people  resort  to 
Shiloh  (the  national  sanctuary  before  Jerusalem  was 
won) ;  and  the  nations  (the  heathen  Canaanites)  shall  obey 
hiinJ  We  here  purposely  leave  out  of  sight  any  such 
consideration  as  that  our  actual  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment came  first  together  through  the  piety  of  the 
house  of  Ji-^dah,  and  when  the  destiny  of  Judah  was 
already  traced ;  and  that  to  say  roundly  :  '  Jacob  was 
enabled  to  foretell,  The  sceptre  shall  not  depart  from 
Judah/  as  if  we  were  speaking  of  a  prophecy  preached 
and  published  by  Dr.  Gumming,  is  wholly  inadmissible. 
For  this  consideration  is  of  force,  indeed,  but  it  is  a  con- 
sideration drawn  from  the  rules  of  literary  history  and 
criticism,  and  not  likely  to  have  weight  with  the  mass  of 
mankind.  Palpable  error  and  mistranslation  are  what  will 
have  weight  with  them. 

And  what,  then,  will  they  say  as  they  come  to  know 
(and  do  not  and  must  not  more  and  more  of  them  come 
to  know  it  every  day?)  that  Jeremiah's  supposed  signal 
identification  of  Jesus  Christ  with  the  God  of  Israel : '  I  will 
raise  to  David  a  righteous  Branch,  and  this  is  the  name 
whereby  he  shall  be  called,  the  lord  our  right- 
eousness,' runs  really  :  '  T  will  raise  to  David  a  righteous 
branch ;  in  his  days  Judah  shall  be  saved  and  Israel 
shall  dwell  safely;  and  this  is  the  name  whereby  they 


THE  PROOF  FROM  PROPHECY. 


shall  call  themselves  :  The  Eternal  is  our  righteousjiess  ! ' 
The  prophecy  thus  becomes  simply  one  of  the  many 
promises  of  a  successor  to  David  under  whom  the  Hebrew 
people  should  trust  in  the  Eternal  and  follow  righteous- 
ness ;  just  as  the  prophecy  from  Genesis  is  one  of  the  many 
prophecies  of  the  enduring  continuance  of  the  greatness 
of  Judah.  '  The  Lord  said  unto  my  Lord,'  in  like  manner — 
will  not  people  be  startled  when  they  find  that  it  ought 
instead  to  run  as  follows  :  '  The  Eternal  said  unto  my  lord 
the  king,' — a  simple  promise  of  victory  to  a  prince  of 
God's  chosen  people  ? 


Leslie,  in  his  once  famous  Short,  and  Easy  Method  with 
the  Deists,  speaks  of  the  impugners  of  the  current 
evidences  of  Christianity  as  men  who  consider  the 
Scripture  histories  and  the  Christian  religion  '  cheats  and 
impositions  of  cunning  and  designing  men  upon  the 
credulity  of  simple  people.'  Collins,  and  the  whole 
arr^y  of  \vriters  at  whom  Leslie  aims  this,  greatly  need  to 
be  re-surveyed  from  the  point  of  view  of  our  own  age. 
Nevertheless,  we  may  grant  that  some  of  them,  at  any 
rate,  conduct  their  attacks  on  the  current  evidences  for 
Christianity  in  such  a  manner  as  to  give  the  notion  that 
in  their  opinion  Christianity  itself,  and  religion,  is  a  cheat 

I 


114  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

and  an  imposture.  But  how  far  more  prone  will  the 
mass  of  mankind  be  to  hearken  to  this  opinion,  if  they 
have  been  kept  intent  on  predictions  such  as  those  of 
which  we  have  given  specimens  ;  if  they  have  been  kept 
full  of  the  great  importance  of  this  narrow  line  of  mechani- 
cal evidence,  and  then  suddenly  find  that  this  line  of  evi- 
dence gives  way  at  all  points  ?  It  can  hardly  be  gainsaid, 
that  to  a  delicate  and  penetrating  criticism  it  has  long 
been  manifest,  that  the  chief  literal  fulfilment  by  Christ  of 
things  said  by  the  ;prophets  was  the  fulfilment  such  as 
would  naturally  be  given  by  one  who  nourished  his 
spirit  on  the  prophets  and  on  living  and  acting  their 
words.  The  great  prophecies  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah 
are,  critics  can  now  see,  not  strictly  predictio7is  at  all ; 
and  predictions  which  are  strictly  meant  as  such,  like  those 
in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  are  an  embarrassment  to  the  Bible 
rather  than  a  main  element  of  it.  The  '  Zeit-Geist,'  and 
the  mere  spread  of  what  is  called  enlightenment^  superficial 
and  barren  as  this  often  is,  \vill  inevitably,  before  long, 
make  this  conviction  of  criticism  a  popular  opinion  held 
far  and  wide.  And  then,  what  will  be  their  case,  who 
have  been  so  long  and  sedulously  taught  to  rely  on  super- 
natural predictions  as  a  mainstay  ? 

The  same  must  be  said  of  miracles.     The  substitution 
of  some  other  proof  of  Christianity  for  this  accustomed 


THE  PROOF  FROM  PROPHECY.  115 


proof  is  now  to  be  desired  most  by  those  who  most 
think  Christianity  of  importance.  That  old  friend  of 
ours  on  whom  we  have  formerly  commented,^  who 
insists  upon  it  that  Christianity  is  and  shall  be  nothing 
else  but  this,  '  that  Christ  promised  Paradise  to  the 
saint  and  threatened  the  worldly  man  with  hell-fire,  and 
proved  his  power  to  promise  and  threaten  by  rising  from 
the  dead  and  ascending  into  heaven,'  is  certainly  not  the 
guide  whom  lovers  of  Christianity,  if  they  could  discern 
what  it  is  that  he  really  expects  and  aims  at,  and  what  it 
is  which  they  themselves  really  desire,  would  think  it 
wise  to  follow. 

But  the  subject  of  miracles  is  a  very  great  one ;  it 
includes  within  itself,  indeed,  the  whole  question  about 
'  supernatural  prescience,'  which  meets  us  when  we  deal 
with  prophecy.  And  this  great  subject  requires,  in  order 
that  we  may  deal  with  it  properly,  some  little  recapitulation 
of  our  original  design  in  this  essay,  and  of  the  circum- 
stances in  which  the  cause  of  religion  anc^  of  the  Bible 
seems  to  be  at  this  moment  placed. 

'  St.  Paul  and  Protestantism,  p.  157, 


ii6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE    PROOF    FROM    MIRACLES. 

We  have  seen  that  some  new  treatment  or  other  the 
rehgion  of  the  Bible  certamly  seems  to  require,  for  it  is 
attacked  on  all  sides,  and  the  theologians  are  not  so 
successful  as  one  might  wish  in  defending  it.  One  critic 
says,  that  if  these  islands  had  no  religion  at  all  it  would 
not  enter  into  his  mind  to  introduce  the  religious  and 
ethical  idea  by  the  agency  of  the  Bible  ;  another,  that 
though  certain  commonplaces  are  common  to  all  systems 
of  morality,  yet  the  Bible  way  of  enunciating  these  com- 
monplaces no  longer  suits  us.  And  we  may  rest  assured, 
he  adds,  that  by  saying  what  we  think  in  some  other, 
more  congenial,  language,  we  shall  really  be  taking  the 
shortest  road  to  discovering  the  new  doctrines  which  will 
satisfy  at  once  our  reason  and  our  imagination.  Another 
critic  goes  farther  still,  and  calls  Bible-religion  not  only 
destitute  of  a  modern  and  congenial  way  of  stating  its 
commonplaces  of  morality,  but  a  defacer  and  disfigurer 
of  moral  treasures  which  were  once  in  better  keeping.    The 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  117 

more  one  studies,  the  more,  says  he,  one  is  convinced,  that 
the  rehgion  which  calls  itself  revealed  contains,  in  the  way 
of  what  is  good,  nothing  which  is  not  the  incoherent  and 
ill-digested  residue  of  the  wisdom  of  the  ancients.  To 
the  same  effect  the  Duke  of  Somerset, — who  has  been 
affording  lately  proof  to  the  world  that  our  aristocratic 
class  are  not,  as  has  been  said,  inaccessible  to  ideas  and 
merely  polite,  but  that  they  are  familiar,  on  the  contrary, 
with  modem  criticism  of  the  most  advanced  kind, — the 
Duke  of  Somerset  finds  very  much  to  be  dissatisfied  with 
in  the  Bible  and  its  teaching  j  although  the  soul,  he  says, 
has  (outside  the  Bible,  apparently)  one  unassailable  for- 
tress to  which  she  may  retire, — faith  in  God. 

All  this  seems  to  threaten  to  push  Bible-religion  from 
the  place  it  has  long  held  in  our  affections.  And  even 
what  the  most  modern  criticism  of  all  sometimes  does  to 
save  it  and  set  it  up  again,  can  hardly  be  called  veiy 
flattering  to  it.  For  whereas  the  Hebrew  race  imagined 
that  to  them  were  committed  the  oracles  of  God,  and 
that  their  God,  'the  Eternal  who  loveth  righteousness,' 
was  the  God  to  whom  every  knee  should  bow  and  every 
tongue  swear,  there  now  comes  Monsieur  Emile  Burnouf, 
the  accomplished  son  of  a  gifted  father,^  and  \vill  prove  to 

'  In  his  recently  published  Introduction  to  the  Science  of  Religion^ 
Professor  Max  Miiller  says  that  I  'ought  to  have  known  that 
Eugene  Burnouf  left  no  son  and  no  successor.'     But  in  Vapereau's 


ii8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


us  in  a  thick  volume  ^  that  the  oracles  of  God  were  not 
committed  to  a  Semitic  race  at  all,  but  to  the  Aryan;  that 
the  true  God  is  not  Israel's  God  at  all,  but  is  'the  idea  of 
the  absolute '  which  Israel  could  never  properly  master. 
This  '  sacred  theory  of  the  Aryas,'  it  seems,  passed  into 
Palestine  from  Persia  and  India,  and  got  possession  of 
the  founder  of  Christianity  and  of  his  greatest  aposdes 
St.  Paul  and  St.  John ;  becoming  more  perfect,  and 
returning  more  and  more  to  its  true  character  of  a 
*  transcendent  metaphysic/  as  the  doctors  of  the  Christian 
Church  developed  it.  So  that  we  Christians,  who  are 
Aryas,  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  thinking  that  '  the 
religion  of  Christ  has  not  come  to  us  from  the  Semites,' 
and  that  '  it  is  in  the  hymns  of  the  Veda  and  not  in  the 
Bible  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  primordial  source  of 
our  religion.'  The  theory  of  Christ  is  accordingly  the 
theory  of  the  Vedic  Agni,  ox  fire  ;  the  Incarnation  repre- 
sents the  Vedic  solemnity  of  the  production  of  fire^ 
symbol  of  force  of  every  kind,  of  all  movement,  life,  and 
thought;  the  Trinity  of  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit  is  the 
Vedic  Trinity  of  Sun,  Fire,  and  Wind ;  and  God,  finally, 
is  '  a  cosmic  unity.' 

Such  speculations  almost  take  away  the  breath  of  a 

Dictionnaire  des  Contemporains  I  find  :  '  Emile  Buraouf,  fils  de 
I'orientaliste  Eugene  Bumouf.' 

*  La  Science  des  Religions  \    Paris,  1872. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  119 

mere  man  of  letters.  What  one  is  inclined  to  say  of 
them  is  this  :  Undoubtedly  these  exploits  of  the  Aryan 
genius  are  gratifying  to  us  members  of  the  Aiyan  race. 
The  God  of  the  Hebrews,  M.  Burnouf  says  expressly, 
*was  not  a  cosmic  unity;'  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews 
*  had  not  that  transcendent  metaphysic  which  the  genius 
of  the  Aryas  requires ; '  and,  '  in  passing  from  the  Aryan 
race  to  the  inferior  races,  religion  underwent  a  deteriora- 
tion due  to  the  physical  and  moral  constitution  of  these 
races/  For  religion,  it  must  be  remembered,  is,  in 
M.  Burnouf 's  view,  fundamentally  a  science ;  '  a  meta- 
physical conception,  a  theory,  a  synthetic  explanation  of 
the  universe.'  Now  '  the  perfect  Arya  is  capable  of  a 
great  deal  of  science ;  the  Semite  is  inferior  to  him.'  As 
Aryas  or  Aryans,  then,  we  ought  to  be  pleased  at  having 
vindicated  the  greatness  of  our  race,  and  having  not 
borrowed  a  Semitic  religion  as  it  stood,  but  transformed 
it  by  importing  our  own  metaphysics  into  it. 

And  this  seems  to  harmonise  very  well  with  what  the 
Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester  say  about  '  doing 
something  for  the  honour  of  Our  Lord's  Godhead,'  and 
about  *the  infinite  separation  for  time  and  for  eternity 
which  is  involved  in  rejecting  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal 
Son,  Very  God  of  Very  God,  Light  of  Light ; '  and  also 
with  the  Athanasian  Creed  generally,  and  with  what  the 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


clergy  write  to  the  Guardian  about  'eternal  life  being 
unquestionably  annexed  to  a  right  knowledge  of  the 
Godhead.'  For  all  these  have  in  view  high  science  and 
metaphysics,  worthy  of  the  Aryas.  But  to  Bible-religion, 
in  the  plain  sense  of  the  word,  it  is  not  flattering ;  for 
it  throws  overboard  almost  entirely  the  Old  Testament, 
and  makes  the  essence  of  the  New  to  consist  in  an  esoteric 
doctrine  not  very  visible  there,  but  more  fully  developed 
outside  of  it.  The  metaphysical  element  is  made  the 
fundamental  element  in  religion  ;  but  '  the  Bible  books, 
especially  the  more  ancient  of  them,  are  destitute  of 
metaphysics,  and  consequently  of  method  and  classifica- 
tion in  their  ideas.'  Israel,  therefore,  instead  of  being  a 
light  of  the  Gentiles  and  a  salvation  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  falls  to  a  place  in  the  world's  religious  history 
behind  the  Arya.  He  is  dismissed  as  ranking  anthropo- 
logically between  the  Aryas  and  the  yellow  men ;  as 
having  frizzled  hair,  thick  lips,  small  calves,  flat  feet, 
and  belonging,  above  all,  to  those  'occipital  races'  whose 
brain  cannot  grow  after  the  age  of  sixteen  ;  whereas  the 
brain  of  a  theological  Arya,  such  as  one  of  our  bishops, 
may  go  on  growing  all  his  life. 

But  we,  who  think  that  the  Old  Testament  leads  surely 
up  to  the  New,  who  believe  that,  indeed,  '  salvation  is  of 
the  Jews,'  and  that,  for  what  concerns  conduct  or  righteous- 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  121 


ness  (that  is,  for  what  concerns  three-fourths  of  human 
life)  they  and  their  documents  can  no  more  be  neglected 
by  whoever  would  make  proficiency  in  it,  than  Greece  can 
be  neglected  by  anyone  who  would  make  proficiency  in 
art,  or  Newton's  discoveries  by  whoever  would  compre- 
hend the  world's  physical  laws, — we  are  naturally  not 
satisfied  with  this  treatment  of  Israel  and  the  Bible.  And 
admitting  that  Israel  shows  no  talent  for  metaphysics,  we 
say  that  his  religious  greatness  is  just  this,  that  he  does 
;/^/ found  religion  on  metaphysics,  but  on  moral  experience, 
which  is  a  much  simpler  matter ;  and  that,  ever  since  the-i 
apparition  of  Israel  and  the  Bible,  religion  is  no  longer 
what,  according  to  M.  Burnouf,  to  our  Aryan  forefathers 
in  the  valley  of  the  Oxus  it  was,— and  what  perhaps  it 
really  was  to  them, — a  metaphysical  theory,  but  is  what 
Israel  has  made  it. 

And  what  Israel  made,  and  how  he  made  it,  we  seek 
to  show  from  the  Bible  itself  Thus  we  hope  to 
win  for  the  Bible  and  its  religion,  which  seem  to  us  so 
indispensable  to  the  world,  an  access  to  many  of  those 
who  now  neglect  them.  For  there  is  this  to  be  said  against 
M.  Burnoufs  metaphysics :  no  one  can  allege  that  the 
Bible  has  failed  to  win  access  for  want  of  metaphysics 
being  applied  to  it.  Metaphysics  are  just  what  all  our 
theology  runs  up  into,  and   our   bishops,    as   we  know. 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


are  here  particularly  strong.  But  we  have  seen  that  the 
making  religion  into  metaphysics  is  the  weakening  of 
religion ;  now  M.  Burnouf  makes  religion  into  metaphysics 
more  than  ever.  Yet  evidently  the  metaphysical  method 
lacks  power  for  laying  hold  on  people,  and  compelling 
them  to  receive  the  Bible  from  it ;  it  is  felt  to  be  incon- 
clusive as  thus  employed,  and  its  inconclusiveness  tells 
against  the  Bible.  This  is  the  case  with  the  metaphysics 
of  our  bishops,  and  it  will  be  the  same  with  M.  Burnouf's 
new  metaphysics  also.  They  will  be  found,  we  fear,  to 
have  an  inconclusiveness  in  their  recommendation  of 
Christianity.  To  very  many  persons,  indeed  to  the  great 
majority,  such  a  method,  in  such  a  matter,  must  be  in- 
conclusive. 

2.  \ 

Therefore  we  would  not  allow  ourselves  to  start  with 
any  metaphysical  conception  at  all,  not  mth  the  mono- 
theistic idea,  as  it  is  styled,  any  more  than  with  the 
pantheistic  idea;  and,  indeed,  we  are  quite  sure  that 
Israel  himself  began  with  nothing  of  the  kind.  The  idea 
of  God,  as  it  is  given  us  in  the  Bible,  rests,  we  say,  not 
on  a  metaphysical  conception  of  the  necessity  of  certain 
deductions  from  our  ideas  of  cause,  existence,  identity, 
and  the  like ;  but  on  a  moral  perception  of  a  rule  of  con- 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES. 


duct  not  of  our  own  making,  into  which  we  are  born, 
and  which  exists  whether  we  will  or  no ;  of  awe  at  its , 
grandeur  and  necessity,  and  of  gratitude  at  its  beneficence.  1 
This  is  the  great  original  revelation  made  to  Israel,  this  is 
his  'Eternal.' 

Man^  however,  as  Goethe  says,  never  Jznoivs  Jiow 
anthropomorphic  he  is.  Israel  described  his  Eternal  in 
the  language  of  poetry  and  emotion,  and  could  not  thus 
describe  him  but  with  the  character  of  a  man.  Scientifi- 
cally he  never  attempted  to  describe  him  at  all.  But 
still  the  Eternal  was  ever  at  last  reducible,  for  Israel,  to 
the  reality  of  experience  out  of  which  the  revelation 
sprang ;  he  was  '  the  righteous  Eternal  who  loveth 
righteousness.'  They  who  '  seek  the  Eternal,'  and  they 
who  'follow  after  righteousness,'  were  identical ;  just  as, 
conversely,  they  who  'fear  the  Eternal,'  and  they  who 
*  depart  from  evil,'  were  identical.  Above  all :  '  He  that 
feareth  the  Eternal  happy  is  he  ; '  'it  \'s>jcy  to  the  just  to 
do  judgment;'  'righteousness  tendeth  to  life;'  'the 
righteous  is  an  everlasting  foundation.' 

But,  as  time  went  on,  facts  seemed,  we  saw,  to  con- 
tradict this  fundamental  belief,  to  refute  this  faith  in  the 
Eternal ;  material  forces  prevailed,  and  God  appeared,  as 
they  say,  to  be  on  the  side  of  the  big  battalions.  The 
great  unrighteous  kingdoms  of  the  world,  kingdoms  which 


124  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 


cared  far  less  than  Israel  for  righteousness,  and  for  the 
Eternal  who  makes  for  righteousness,  overpowered  Israel. 
Prophecy  assured  him  that  the  triumph  of  the  Eternal's 
cause  and  people  was  certain  :  Behold^  the  EternaVs  hand 
is  not  shortened,  that  it  cannot  save.  The  triumph  was 
but  adjourned  through  Israel's  own  sins  :  Your  iniquities 
have  separated  between  yoit  and  your  God.  Prophecy 
directed  its  hearers  to  the  future,  and  promised  them 
a  new  everlasting  kingdom  under  a  heaven-sent  leader. 
The  characters  of  this  kingdom  and  leader  were  more 
spiritualised  by  one  prophet,  more  materialised  by 
another.  As  time  went  on,  in  the  last  centuries  before 
our  era,  they  became  increasingly  turbid  and  phantasma- 
gorical.  In  addition  to  his  original  experimental  behef 
in  the  almighty  Eternal  who  makes  for  righteousness, 
Israel  had  now  a  vast  Aberglaube,  an  after  or  extra-belief, 
not  experimental,  in  an  approaching  kingdom  of  the 
saints,  to  be  established  by  an  Anointed,  a  Messiah,  or 
by  '  one  like  the  Son  of  Man,'  commissioned  from  the 
Ancient  of  Days  and  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven. 

Jesus  came,  calling  himself  the  Messiah,  the  Son  of 
Man,  the  Son  of  God ;  and  the  question  is,  what  is  the 
true  meaning  of  these  assertions  of  his,  and  of  all  his 
teaching  ?  It  is  the  same  question  we  had  about  the  Old 
Testament.     Is  the  language  scientific,  or  is  it,  as  we  say, 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  125 

literary  1 — that  is,  the  language  of  poetry  and  emotion,  ap- 
proximative language,  thrown  out,  as  it  were,  at  certain 
great  objects  which  the  human  mind  augurs  and  feels 
after,  but  not  language  accurately  defining  them?  Po- 
pular religion  says,  we  know,  that  the  language  is  scien- 
tific; that  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament  is  a  great 
Personal  First  Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves  (for  this  too, 
it  seems,  we  ought  to  have  added),  the  moral  and  intelli- 
gent Governor  of  the  universe.  Learned  religion,  the 
metaphysical  theology  of  our  bishops,  proves  or  confirms 
this  by  abstruse  reasoning  from  our  ideas  of  cause,  de- 
sign, existence,  identity,  and  so  on.  Popular  religion 
rests  it  altogether  on  miracles. 

The  God  of  Israel,  for  popular  religion,  is  a  magnified 
and  non-natural  man  who  has  really  worked  stupendous 
miracles,  whereas  the  Gods  of  the  heathen  were  vainly 
imagined  to  be  able  to  work  them,  but  could  not,  and 
had  therefore  no  real  existence.  Of  this  God,  Jesus  for 
popular  religion  is  the  Son.  He  came  to  appease  God's 
wrath  against  sinful  men  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself;  and 
he  proved  his  Sonship  by  a  course  of  stupendous  miracles, 
and  by  the  wonderful  accomplishment  in  him  of  the  super- 
natural Messianic  predictions  of  prophecy.  Here,  again, 
learned  religion  elucidates  and  developes  the  relation  of 
the  Son  to  the  Father  by  a  copious  exhibition  of  meta- 


26  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


physics ;  but  for  popular  religion  the  relationship,  and  the 
authority  of  Jesus  which  derives  from  it,  is  altogether 
established  by  miracle. 

Now,  we  have  seen  that  our  bishops  and  their  meta- 
physics are  so  little  convincing,  that  many  people  throw 
the  Bible  quite  aside  and  will  not  attend  to  it,  because 
they  are  given  to  understand  that  the  metaphysics  go 
necessarily  along  with  it,  and  that  one  cannot  be  taken 
w^ithout  the  other.  So  far,  then,  the  talents  of  the 
Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester,  and  their  zeal  to 
do  something  for  the  honour  of  the  Eternal  Son's  God- 
head, may  be  said  to  be  actual  obstacles  to  the  receiving 
and  studying  of  the  Bible.  But  the  srime  may  now  be 
also  said  of  the  popular  theolog>'  which  rests  the  Bible's 
authority  and  the  Christian  religion  on  miracle.  To  a 
great  many  persons  this  is  tantamount  to  stopping  their 
use  of  the  Bible  and  of  the  Christian  religion ;  for  they 
have  made  up  their  minds  that  what  is  popularly  called 
miracle  never  really  happens  nor  can  happen,  and  that 
the  belief  in  it  arises  out  of  ignorance,  fraud,  or  mistake. 
To  these  persons  we  restore  the  use  of  the  Bible,  if, 
while  showing  them  that  the  Bible-language  is  not  scien- 
tific, but  the  language  of  common  speech  or  of  poetry 
and  eloquence,  approximative  language  thrown  out  at 
certain  great  objects  of  consciousness  which  it  does  not 


THE   PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  127 

pretend  to  define  fully,  we  convince  them  at  the  same 
time  that  this  language  deals  with  facts  of  experience 
most  momentous  and  real. 

We  have  sought  to  do  this  for  the  language  of  the  Old 
Testament  first,  and  we  now  seek  to  do  it  for  that  of  the 
New.  Our  attempt,  therefore,  has  in  view  those  who 
now  throw  the  Bible  aside,  not  those  who  receive  it  on 
the  ground  supplied  either  by  popular  theology  or  by 
metaphysical  theology.  For  persons  of  this  kind,  what 
we  say  neither  will  have,  nor  seeks  to  have,  any  con- 
straining force  at  all;  only  it  is  rendered  necessary  by  the 
want  of  constraining  force,  for  others  than  themselves,  in 
their  o^vn  theology.  How  little  constraining  force  meta- 
physical dogma  has,  we  all  see.  And  we  have  shown,  too, 
how  the  proof  from  the  fulfilment  in  Christ  of  a  number 
of  definite,  detailed  predictions,  supposed  to  have  been 
made  with  supernatural  prescience  about  him  long  be- 
forehand, is  losing,  and  seems  likely  more  and  more  to 
lose,  its  constraining  force.  It  is  found  that  the  predic- 
tions and  their  fulfilment  are  not  what  they  are  said  to  be. 

Now  we  come  to  mb-ades^  more  specially  so  called ; 
and  we  have  to  see  whether  the  constraining  force  of  this 
proof,  too,  must  not  be  admitted  to  be  far  less  than  it 
used  to  be,  and  whether  some  other  source  of  authority 
for  the  Bible  is  not  much  to  be  desired. 


128  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


That  miracles,  when  fully  believed,  are  felt  by  men  in 
general  to  be  a  source  of  authority,  it  is  absurd  to  deny. 
One  may  say,  indeed  :  Suppose  I  could  change  the  pen 
with  which  I  write  this  into  a  pen-wiper,  I  should  not 
thus  make  what  I  write  any  the  truer  or  more  convincing. 
That  may  be  so  in  reality,  but  the  mass  of  mankind  feel 
differently.  In  the  judgment  of  the  mass  of  mankind, 
could  I  visibly  and  undeniably  change  the  pen  with  which 
I  ^^Tite  this  into  a  pen-wiper,  not  only  would  this  which 
I  write  acquire  a  claim  to  be  held  perfectly  tme  and  con- 
vincing, but  I  should  even  be  entitled  to  affirm,  and  to 
be  believed  in  affirming,  propositions  the  most  palpably 
at  war  with  common  fact  and  experience.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  exaggerate  the  proneness  of  the  human 
mind  to  take  miracles  as  evidence,  and  to  seek  for 
miracles  as  evidence  3  or  the  extent  to  which  religion, 
and  religion  of  a  true  and  admirable  kind,  has  been,  and 
is  still,  held  in  connexion  with  a  reliance  upon  miracles. 
This  reliance  will  long  outlast  the  reliance  on  the  super- 
natural prescience  of  prophecy,  for  it  is  not  exposed  to 
the  same  tests.  To  pick  Scripture-miracles  one  by  one 
to  pieces  is  an  odious  and  repulsive  task ;  it  is  also  an 
unprofitable    one,  for   whatever  we    may  think   of    the 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  129 

affirmative  demonstrations  of  them,  a  negative  demonstra- 
tion of  them  is,  from  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  im- 
possible. And  yet  the  human  mind  is  assuredly  passing 
away,  however  slowly,  from  this  hold  of  reliance  also ; 
and  those  who  make  it  their  stay  will  more  and  more  find 
it  fail  them,  will  more  and  more  feel  themselves  disturbed, 
shaken,  distressed,  and  bewildered. 

For  it  is  what  we  call  the  Time-Spirit  that  is  sapping 
the  proof  from  miracles, — it  is  the  '  Zeit-Geist '  itself. 
Whether  we  attack  them,  or  whether  we  defend  them, 
does  not  much  matter ;  the  human  mind,  as  its  experience 
widens,  is  turning  away  from  them.  And  for  this  reason : 
it  sees^  as  its  experience  widens^  how  they  arise.  It  sees 
that,  under  certain  circumstances,  they  always  do  arise ; 
and  that  they  have  not  more  solidity  in  one  case  than 
another.  Under  certain  circumstances,  wherever  men 
are  found,  there  is,  as  Shakspeare  says  : — 

No  natural  exhalation  in  the  sky, 
No  scape  of  nature,  no  distemper'd  day, 
No  common  wind,  no  customed  event, 
But  they  will  pluck  away  his  natural  cause, 
And  call  them  meteors,  prodigies,  and  signs, 
Abortives,  presages,  and  tongues  of  heaven. 

Imposture  is  so  far  from  being  the  general  rule  in  these 
cases,  that  it  is  the  rare  exception.     Signs  and  wonders 

K 


I30  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

men's  minds  will  have,  and  they  create  them  honestly  and 
naturally;  yet  not  so  but  that  we  can  see  ho7v  they 
create  them. 

Roman  Catholics  fancy  that  Bible-miracles  and  the 
miracles  of  their  Church  fomi  a  class  by  themselves ;  Pro- 
testants fancy  that  Bible-miracles,  alone,  form  a  class  by 
themselves.  This  was  eminently  the  posture  of  mind  of  the 
late  Archbishop  Whately  : — to  hold  that  all  other  miracles 
would  turn  out  to  be  impostures,  or  capable  of  a  natural 
explanation,  but  that  Bible-miracles  would  stand  sifting 
by  a  London  special  jury  or  by  a  committee  of  scientific 
men.  No  acuteness  can  save  such  notions,  as  our  know- 
ledge widens,  from  being  seen  to  be  mere  extravagances, 
and  the  Protestant  notion  is  doomed  to  an  earlier  ruin 
than  the  CathoHc.  For  the  Catholic  notion  admits 
miracles  in  the  mass ;  the  Protestant  notion  invites  to  a 
criticism  by  which  it  must  before  long  itself  perish.  When 
Stephen  was  martyred,  he  looked  up  into  heaven,  and  saw 
the  glory  of  God  and  Jesus  standing  on  the  right  hand 
of  God.  That,  says  the  Protestant,  is  solid  fact.  At  the 
martyrdom  of  St.  Fructuosus,  Babylas  and  Mygdone,  the 
Christian  servants  of  the  Roman  governor,  saw  the 
heavens  open,  and  the  saint  and  his  deacon  Eulogius 
carried  up  on  high  with  crowns  on  their  heads.  That 
is,  says  the  Protestant,  imposture  or  else  illusion.     St. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  131 

Paul  hears  on  his  way  to  Damascus  the  voice  of  Jesus 
say  to  him :  '  Saul,  Saul,  why  persecutest  thou  me  ? ' 
That,  again,  is  solid  fact.  The  companion  of  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas  hears  a  voice  from  the  crucifix  say  to  the  pray- 
ing saint :  '  Thou  hast  written  well  of  me,  Thomas ;  what 
recompence  dost  thou  desire?'  That,  again,  is  impos- 
ture or  else  illusion.  Why?  It  is  impossible  to  find  any 
criterion  by  which  one  of  these  incidents  may  establish 
its  claim  to  a  solidity  which  we  refuse  to  the  others. 

One  of  two  things  must  be  made  out  in  order  to  place 
either  the  Bible-miracles  alone,  or  the  Bible-miracles  and 
the  miracles  of  the  Catholic  Church  with  them,  in  a  class 
by  themselves.  Either  they  must  be  shown  to  have 
arisen  in  a  time  eminently  unfavourable  to  such  a  process 
as  Shakspeare  describes,  to  amplification  and  the  pro- 
duction of  legend ;  or  they  must  be  shown  to  be  recorded 
in  documents  of  an  eminently  historical  mode  of  birth 
and  publication.  But  surely  it  is  manifest  that  the  Bible- 
miracles  fulfil  neither  of  these  conditions.  It  was  said 
that  the  waters  of  the  Pamphylian  Sea  miraculously 
opened  a  passage  for  the  army  of  Alexander  the  Great. 
Admiral  Beaufort,  however,  tells  us  that,  '  though  there 
are  no  tides  in  this  part  of  the  Mediterranean,  a  consider- 
able depression  of  the  sea  is  caused  by  long-continued 
north  winds,  and  Alexander,  taking  advantage  of  such  a 


132  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

moment,  may  have  dashed  on  widiout  impediment;'^ 
and  we  accept  the  explanation  as  a  matter  of  course. 
But  the  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  are  said  to  have  miracu- 
lously opened  a  passage  for  the  children  of  Israel ;  and 
we  insist  on  the  literal  truth  of  this  story,  and  reject 
natural  explanations  as  monstrous.  Yet  the  time  and 
circumstances  of  the  flight  from  Egypt  were  a  thousand 
times  more  favourable  to  the  rise  of  some  natural  inci- 
dent into  a  miracle,  than  the  age  of  Alexander.  They 
were  a  time  and  circumstances  of  less  broad  daylight. 
It  was  said,  again,  that  during  the  battle  of  Leuctra  the 
gates  of  the  Heracleum  at  Thebes  suddenly  opened,  and 
the  araiour  of  Hercules  vanished  from  the  temple,  to 
enable  the  god  to  take  part  with  the  Thebans  in  the 
battle.  Probably  there  was  some  real  circumstance,  how- 
ever slight,  which  gave  a  foundation  for  the  story.  But 
this  is  the  most  we  think  of  saying  in  its  favour;  the 
literal  story  it  never  even  occurs  to  one  of  us  to  believe. 
But  that  the  walls  of  Jericho  literally  fell  down  at  the 
sound  of  the  trumpets  of  Joshua,  we  are  asked  to  believe, 
told  that  it  is  impious  to  disbelieve  it.  Yet  which  place 
and  time  were  most  likely  to  generate  a  miraculous  story 
with  ease, — Hellas  and  the  days  of  Epaminondas,  or 
Palestine  and  the  days  of  Joshua  ?    And  of  documentary 

*  Beaufort's  A'^zrrtwaw/^,  p.  ii6. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  133 

records,  which  are  the  most  historical  in  their  way  of 
being  generated  and  propagated,  which  the  most  favour- 
able for  the  admission  of  legend  and  miracle  of  all  kinds, 
— the  Old  Testament  narratives  with  their  incubation  of 
centuries,  and  the  New  Testament  narratives  with  their 
incubation  of  a  century  (and  tradition  active  all  the 
while),  or  the  narratives,  say,  of  Herodotus  or  Plutarch  ? 
None  of  them  are  what  we  call  critical.  Experience  of 
the  history  of  the  human  mind,  and  of  men's  habits  of 
seeing,  sifting,  and  relating,  convinces  us  that  the  mira- 
culous stories  of  Herodotus  or  Plutarch  do  grow  out  of 
the  process  described  by  Shakspeare.  But  we  shall  find 
ourselves  inevitably  led,  sooner  or  later,  to  extend  the 
same  rule  to  all  miraculous  stories ;  nay,  the  considera- 
tions which  apply  in  other  cases,  apply,  we  shall  most 
surely  discover,  with  even  greater  force  in  the  case  of 
Bible-miracles. 


This  being  so,  there  is  nothing  one  would  more  desire 
for  a  person  or  document  one  greatly  values,  than  to 
make  them  independent  of  miracles.  And  with  regard 
to  the  Old  Testament  we  have  done  this ;  for  we  have 
shown  that  the  essential  matter  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
the  revelation  to  Israel  of  the  immeasurable  grandeur, 


134  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

the  eternal  necessity,  the  priceless  blessing  of  that  \vith 
which  not  less  than  three-fourths  of  human  life  is  indeed 
concerned, — righteousness.  And  it  makes  no  difference 
to  the  preciousness  of  this  revelation,  whether  we  believe 
that  the  Red  Sea  miraculously  opened  a  passage  to  the 
Israelites,  and  the  walls  of  Jericho  miraculously  fell  down 
at  the  blast  of  Joshua's  trumpet,  or  that  these  stories  arose 
in  the  same  way  as  other  stories  of  the  kind.  But  in  the 
New  Testament  the  essential  thing  is  the  revelation  of 
Jesus  Christ.  For  this  too,  then,  if  one  values  it,  one's 
great  wish  must  in  like  manner  be  to  make  it  independent  of 
miracle;  if  miracle  is  a  stay  which  one  perceives,  as 
more  and  more  we  are  all  coming  to  perceive  it,  to  be 
not  solid. 

Now,  it  may  look  at  first  sight  a  strange  thing  to  say, 
but  it  is  a  truth  which  we  will  make  abundantly  clear 
as  we  go  on,  that  one  of  the  very  best  helps  to  prepare  a 
way  for  the  revelation  of  Christ,  is  to  convince  oneself  of 
the  liability  to  mistake  in  his  reporters.  Our  popular 
theology  imagines  that  the  Old  Testament  writers  were 
miraculously  inspired,  and  could  make  no  mistakes ;  that 
the  New  Testament  writers  were  miraculously  inspired, 
and  could  make  no  mistakes ;  and  that  there  this  mira- 
culous inspiration  stopped,  and  all  writers  on  religion 
have  been  liable  to  make  mistakes  ever  since.     It  is  as  if 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  135 

a  hand  had  been  put  out  of  the  sky  presenting  us  with  the 
Bible,  and  the  rules  of  criticism  which  apply  to  other 
books  did  not  apply  to  the  Bible.  Now,  the  fatal  thing 
for  this  fancy  is,  that  its  owners  stab  it  to  the  heart  the 
moment  they  use  any  palliation  or  explaining  away,  how- 
ever small,  of  the  literal  words  of  the  Bible ;  and  some 
they  always  use.  For  instance,  it  is  said  in  the  eight- 
eenth Psalm,  that  a  consuming  fire  went  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God,  so  that  coals  were  kindled  at  it.  The 
veriest  literalist  will  cry  out :  Every  one  knows  that  this 
is  not  to  be  taken  literally !  The  truth  is,  even  he  knows 
that  this  is  not  to  be  taken  literally ;  but  others  know 
that  a  great  deal  more  is  not  to  be  taken  literally.  He 
knows  very  little ;  but,  as  far  as  his  little  knowledge  goes, 
he  gives  up  his  theory,  which  is,  of  course,  palpably 
hollow.  For  indeed  it  is  only  by  applying  to  the  Bible 
a  criticism,  such  as  it  is,  that  any  man  makes  out  that 
criticism  does  not  apply  to  the  Bible. 

But  suppose  that  the  Bible  itself  put  forth  (which  it 
does  not)  this  theory,  and  made  its  own  value  all  depend 
on  the  truth  of  it,  then  the  result  would  be,  at  the  best, 
not  firmer  conviction,  but  utter  puzzle  and  bewilderment. 
Contradictions  would  meet  us,  and  we  should  have  no 
means  of  escape  from  them.  There  would  grow  up  an 
irresistible  sense  that  the  belief  in  miracles  was  due  to 


136  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

man's  want  of  experience,  to  his  ignorance,  agitation,  and 
helplessness ;  and  yet  we  should  have  a  book,  which  we 
felt  to  be  precious,  purporting  to  be  put  out  of  the  sky, 
to  be  full  of  miracles,  and  to  depend  for  all  its  value  upon 
their  being  true.  Then  it  is  that  the  cry,  imposture  !  would 
more  and  more,  in  spite  of  all  we  could  do,  gather  strength, 
and  the  book  be  thrown  aside  more  and  more.  But  when 
we  convince  ourselves  that,  in  the  New  Testament  as  in 
the  Old,  what  is  given  us  is  words  throitni  out  at  an 
immense  reality,  not  fully  or  half  fully  grasped  by  the 
writer,  but,  even  thus,  able  to  affect  us  with  indescribable 
force  ;  when  we  convince  ourselves  that,  as  in  the  Old 
Testament  we  have  Israel's  inadequate  yet  inexhaustibly 
fruitful  testimony  to  the  Eternal  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness^ so  we  have  in  the  New  Testament  a  report  in- 
adequate, indeed,  but  the  only  report  we  have  and 
therefore  priceless,  by  men,  some  more  able  and  clear, 
others  less  able  and  clear,  but  all  full  of  the  influences  of 
tlieir  time  and  condition,  partakers  of  some  of  its  simple 
or  its  learned  ignorance, — inevitably,  in  fine,  expecting 
miracles  and  demanding  them, — a  report,  I  say,  by 
these  men  of  that  immense  reality  not  fully  or  half  fully 
grasped  by  them,  the  mind  of  Christ ; — then  we  shall 
be  drawn  to  the  Gospels  with  a  new  zest  and  as  by  a 
fresh  spell.     We   shall  throw  ourselves  upon  their  nar* 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES,  137 

ratives  with  an  ardour  answering  to  the  vahie  of  the 
pearl  of  great  price  they  hold,  and  to  the  difficulty  of 
reaching  it. 

So,  to  profit  fully  by  the  New  Testament,  the  first  1/ 
thing  to  be  done  is  to  make  it  perfectly  clear  to  oneself 
that  its  reporters  both  could  err  and  did  err.  For  a  j^lain 
person,  an  incident  in  the  report  of  St.  Paul's  conversion, 
— which  comes  into  our  minds  the  more  naturally  as  this 
mcident  has  been  turned  against  something  we  have  our- 
selves said, ^— would,  one  would  think,  be  enough.  We 
had  spoken  of  the  notion  that  St.  Paul's  miraculous  vision 
at  his  conversion  proved  the  truth  of  his  doctrine.  We 
related  a  vision  which  converted  Sampson  Staniforth,  one 
of  the  early  Methodists ;  and  we  said  that  just  so  much 
proving  force,  and  no  more,  as  Sampson  Staniforth's 
vision  had  to  confirm  the  truth  of  anything  he  might  after- 
wards teach,  St.  Paul's  vision  had  to  establish  his  subse- 
quent doctrine.  It  was  eagerly  rejoined  that  Staniforth's. 
vision  was  but  a  fancy  of  his  own,  whereas  the  reality  of 
Paul's  was  proved  by  his  companions  hearing  the  voice 
that  spoke  to  him.  And  so  in  one  place  of  the  Acts  we 
are  told  they  did  ;  but  in  another  place  of  the  Acts  we  are 
told  by  Paul  himself  just  the  contrary  :  that  his  com- 

*  St.  Paul  and  Protestantism^  p.  54. 


138  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


panions  did  not  hear  the  voice  that  spoke  to  him.  Need 
we  say  that  the  two  statements  have  been  '  reconciled '  ? 
They  have,  over  and  over  again  ;  but  by  one  of  those  pro- 
cesses which  are  the  opprobrium  of  our  Bible-criticism, 
and  by  which,  as  Bishop  Butler  says,  anything  can  be  made 
to  mean  anything.  There  is  between  the  two  statements 
a  contradiction  as  clear  as  can  be.  The  contradiction 
proves  nothing  against  the  good  faith  of  the  reporter,  and 
St.  Paul  undoubtedly  had  his  vision ;  he  had  it  as  Sampson 
Staniforth  had  his.  What  the  contradiction  proves  is,  the 
incurable  looseness  with  which  the  circumstances  of  what 
is  called  and  thought  a  miracle  are  related ;  and  that  this 
looseness  the  Bible-relaters  of  a  miracle  exhibit,  just  like 
other  people.  And  the  moral  is,  what  an  unsure  stay, 
then,  must  miracles  be  ! 

But,  after  all,  that  there  is  here  any  contradiction  or 
mistake,  some  do  deny ;  so  let  us  choose  a  case  where 
the  mistake  is  quite  undeniably  clear.  Such  a  case  we 
find  in  the  confident  expectation  and  assertion,  on  the 
part  of  the  New  Testament  writers,  of  the  approaching 
end  of  the  world.  Even  this  mistake  people  try  to  explain 
away ;  but  it  is  so  palpable  that  no  words  can  cloud  our 
perception  of  it.  The  time  is  short.  The  Lord  is  at  hand. 
The  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand.  Little  child?'en^  it  is 
■the  final  time.      The  Lord's  coming  is  at  hand;    behold 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  139 

the  judge  standeth  before  the  door.''  ^  Nothing  can  really 
obscure  the  evidence  furnished  by  such  sayings  as  these. 
When  Paul  told  the  Thessalonians  that  they  and  he, 
at  the  approaching  coming  of  Christ,  should  have  their 
turn  after,  not  before,  the  faithful  dead  :  '  For  the  Lord 
himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  with  the 
voice  of  the  archangel  and  with  the  trump  of  God,  and 
the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first,  then  we  which  are  alive 
and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them  in  the 
clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air,' — when  he  said 
this,  St.  Paul  was  simply  mistaken  in  his  notion  of 
what  was  going  to  happen.  This  is  as  clear  as  anything 
can  be. 

And  not  only  were  the  New  Testament  writers  thus  de- 
monstrably liable  to  commit,  like  other  men,  mistakes  in 
fact;  they  were  also  demonstrably  liable  to  commit  mis- 
takes in  argument.  As  before,  let  us  take  a  case  which  will 
be  manifest  and  palpable  to  every  one.  St.  Paul,  arguing 
to  the  Galatians  that  salvation  was  not  by  the  Jewish  law 
but  by  Jesus  Christ,  proves  his  point  from  the  promise  to 
Abraham  having  been  made  to  him  and  his  seed^  not  seeds. 
The  words  are  not,  he  says,  '  to  seeds^  as  of  many,  but  as 

>  I.  Cor.  vii,  29  ;  Philipp.  iv,  5  ;  I.  Pet.  iv,  7  ;  I.  John  ii,  18  ; 
James  v,  8,  9.  We  have  here  the  express  declarations  of  St.  Paul^ 
St.  Peter,  St.  John,  and  St.  James. 


I40  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

of  one  ;  to  thy  seed^  which  is  Christ.'  Now,  as  to  the 
point  to  be  proved,  we  all  agree  with  St.  Paul ;  but  his 
argument  is  that  of  a  Jewish  Rabbi,  and  is  clearly  both 
fanciful  and  false.  The  writer  in  Genesis  never  intended 
to  draw  any  distinction  between  one  of  Abraham's  seed, 
and  Abraham's  seed  in  ge?icraL  And  even  if  he  had  ex- 
pressly meant,  what  Paul  says  he  did  not  mean,  Abraham's 
seed  in  general,  he  would  still  have  said  seed,  and  not  seeds. 
This  is  a  good  instance  to  take,  because  the  Apostle's 
substantial  doctrine  is  here  not  at  all  concerned.  As  to 
the  root  of  the  matter  in  question,  we  are  all  at  one  with 
St.  Paul.  But  it  is  evident  how  he  could,  like  the  rest  of 
us,  bring  a  quite  false  argument  in  support  of  a  quite  true 
thesis.^ 

And  the  use  of  prophecy  by  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament  furnishes  really,  almost  at  every  turn,  instances 
of  false  argimient  of  the  same  kind.  Habit  makes  us  sa 
lend  ourselves  to  their  way  of  speaking,  that  commonly  no- 
thing checks  us  ;  but,  the  moment  we  begin  to  attend,  we 
perceive  how  much  there  is  that  ought  to  check  us.  Take 
the  famous  allegation  of  the  parted  clothes  but  lot-assigned 
coat  of  Christ  as  fulfilment  of  the  supposed  prophecy  in 
the  Psalms  :  '  They  parted  my  garments  among  them, 
and  for  my  vesture  did  they  cast  lots.'  The  words  of  the 
Psalm  are  taken  to  mean  contrast,  when  they  do  in  truth 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  141 


mean  identity.  According  to  the  rules  of  Hebrew  poetry, 
for  my  vesture  they  did  cast  lots  is  merely  a  repetition,  in 
different  words,  of  they  parted  my  garments  among  them, 
not  an  antithesis  to  it.  The  alleged  '  prophecy '  is,  there- 
fore, due  to  a  dealing  with  the  Psalmist's  words  which  is 
arbitrary  and  erroneous.  So,  again,  to  call  the  words,  a 
bone  of  him  shall  not  be  broken,  a  prophecy  of  Christ, 
fulfilled  by  his  legs  not  being  broken  on  the  cross,  is 
evidently,  the  moment  one  considers  it,  a  playing  -with 
words  which  nowadays  we  should  account  childish.  For 
what  do  the  words,  taken,  as  alone  words  can  rationally 
be  taken,  along  with  their  context,  really  prophesy  ?  The 
entire  safety  of  the  righteous,  not  his  death.  Many  are 
the  troubles  of  the  righteous,  but  the  Eternal  delivercth  him 
out  of  all;  he  kccpeth  all  his  bones,  so  that  not  ofte  of 
them  is  bi'oken.  Worse  words,  therefore,  could  hardly 
have  been  chosen  from  the  Old  Testament  to  apply  in 
that  connexion  where  they  come;  for  they  are  really  contra- 
dicted by  the  death  of  Christ,  not  fulfilled  by  it. 

It  is  true,  this  verbal  and  unintelligent  use  of  Scripture 
is  just  what  was  to  be  expected  from  the  circumstances 
of  the  New  Testament  writers.  It  was  inevitable  for  them  ; 
it  was  the  sort  of  trifling  which  then,  in  common  Jewish 
theology,  passed  for  grave  argument  and  made  a  serious 
impression,  as  it  has  in  common  Christian  theology  ever 


142  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


since.  But  this  does  not  make  it  the  less  really  trifling  ; 
or  hinder  one  nowadays  seeing  it  to  be  trifling,  directly  we 
examine  it.  The  mistake  made  will  strike  some  people 
more  forcibly  in  one  of  the  cases  cited,  some  in  another, 
but  in  one  or  another  of  the  cases  the  mistake  will  be 
visible  to  everybody. 

Now,  this  recognition  of  the  liability  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  to  make  mistakes,  both  of  fact  and  of  argu- 
ment, will  certainly,  as  we  have  said,  more  and  more  gain 
strength,  and  spread  v/ider  and  wider.  The  futility  of 
their  mode  of  demonstration  from  prophec}',  of  which  we 
have  just  given  examples,  will  be  more  and  more  felt. 
The  fallibility  of  that  demonstration  from  miracles  to 
which  they  and  all  about  them  attached  such  prepon- 
derating weight,  which  made  the  disciples  of  Jesus  believe 
in  him,  which  made  the  people  believe  in  him,  will  be 
more  and  more  recognised. 

Reverence  for  all,  who,  in  those  first  dubious  days  of 
Christianity,  chose  the  better  part,  and  resolutely  cast  in 
their  lot  with  '  the  despised  and  rejected  of  men  ' !  Grati- 
tude to  all,  who,  v/hile  the  tradition  was  yet  fresh,  helped 
by  their  writings  to  preserve  and  set  clear  the  precious 
record  of  the  words  and  life  of  Jesus  !  And  honour, 
eternal  honour,  to  the  great  and  profound  qualities  of  soul 
and  mind  which  some  of  these  writers  display  !     But  the 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  143 


writers  are  admirable  for  what  they  are,  not  for  what,  by  the 
nature  of  things,  they  could  not  be.  It  was  superiority 
enough  in  them  to  attach  themselves  firmly  to  Jesus  ;  to 
feel  to  the  bottom  of  their  hearts  that  power  of  his  words, 
which  alone  held  permanently, — held,  when  the  miracles,  in 
which  the  multitude  believed  as  well  as  the  disciples,  failed 
to  hold.  The  good  faith  of  the  Bible  writers  is  above  all 
question,  it  speaks  for  itself;  and  the  veiy  same  criticism, 
which  shows  us  the  defects  of  their  exegesis  and  of  their 
demonstrations  from  miracles,  establishes  their  good  faith. 
But  this  could  not,  and  did  not,  prevent  them  from  arguing 
in  the  methods  by  which  everyone  around  them  argued, 
and  from  expecting  miracles  where  everybody  else  ex- 
pected them. 

In  one  respect  alone  have  the  miracles  recorded  by 
them  a  more  real  ground  than  the  mass  of  miracles  of 
which  we  have  the  relation.  Medical  science  has  never 
gauged,— never,  perhaps,  enough  set  itself  to  gauge,— the 
intimate  connexion  between  moral  fault  and  disease.  To 
what  extent,  or  in  how  many  cases,  what  is  called  illness 
is  due  to  moral  springs  having  been  used  amiss,  whether 
by  being  over-used  or  by  not  being  used  sufficiently,  we 
hardly  at  all  know,  and  we  too  little  inquire.  Certainly 
it  is  due  to  this  very  much  more  than  we  commonly  think ; 
and  the  more  it  is  due  to  this,  the  more  do  moral  thera- 


144  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


peutics  rise  in  possibility  and  importance.^  The  bringer 
of  light  and  happiness,  the  calmer  and  pacifier  or  invigo- 
rator  and  stimulator,  is  one  of  the  chiefest  of  doctors. 
Such  a  doctor  was  Jesus  ;  such  an  operator,  by  an  effica- 
cious and  real  though  little  observed  and  little  employed 
agency,  upon  what  we,  in  the  language  of  popular  super- 
stition, call  the  iLiiclcan  sph'iis^  but  which  are  to  be  desig- 
nated more  literally  and  more  correctly  as  the  laideared, 
nnpiirified  spirits,  which  came  raging  and  madding  before 
him.  This  his  own  language  shows,  if  we  know  how  to 
read  it.  '  What  docs  it  matter  whether  I  say,  Thy  sins 
are  forgive?i  thee  f  or  whether  I  say,  Arise  a? id  walkV 
And  again  :  '  Thoic  art  made  whole ;  sin  no  more,  lest  a 
worse  thing  befall  thee'  His  reporters,  we  must  remember, 
are  men  who  saw  thaumaturgy  in  all  that  Jesus  did,  and 
who  saw  in  all  sickness  and  disaster  visitations  from  God, 
and  they  bend  his  language  accordingly.  But  indica- 
tions enough  remain  to  show  the  line  of  the  Master,  his 
perception  of  the  large  part  of  moral  cause  in  many  kinds 
•of  disease,  and  his  method  of  addressing  to  this  part 
his  cure. 

It  would  never  have  done,  indeed,  to  have  men  pro- 

'  Consult  the  Charmides  of  Plato  (chap,  v)  for  a  remarkable 
account  of  the  theory  of  such  a  treatment,  attributed  by  Socrates  to 
Zamolxis,  the  god-king  of  the  Thracians. 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES.  14S 

nouncing  right  and  left  that  this  and  that  was  a  judgment, 
and  how,  and  for  what,  and  on  whom  ;  and  so  when  the 
disciples,  seeing  an  afflicted  person,  asked  whether  this 
man  had  done  sin  or  his  parents,  Jesus  checked  them  and 
said  :  '  Neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  but  that  the  works 
of  God  might  be  made  manifest  in  him.'  Not  the  less 
clear  is  his.  own  belief  in  the  moral  root  of  much  physical 
disease,  and  in  moral  therapeutics ;  and  it  is  important 
to  note  well  the  instances  of  miracles  where  this  belief 
comes  in.  For  the  action  of  Jesus  in  these  instances,  how- 
ever it  may  be  amplified  in  the  reports,  was  real ;  but  it 
is  not,  therefore,  as  popular  religion  fancies,  thaumaturgy, 
— it  is  not  what  people  are  fond  of  calling  the  siiper- 
naturalj  but  what  is  better  called  the  non-natural.  It 
is,  on  the  contrary,  like  the  grace  of  Raphael,  or  the 
grand  style  of  Phidias,  emmently  natural ;  but  it  is  above 
common,  low-pitched  nature  j  it  is  a  line  of  nature  not  yet 
mastered  or  followed  out. 

Its  significance  as  a  guarantee  of  the  authenticity  of 
Christ's  mission  is  trivial,  however,  compared  with  the 
guarantee  furnished  by  his  sayings.  Its  importance  is  in 
its  necessary  effect  upon  the  beholders  and  reporters. 
This  element  of  what  was  really  wonderful,  unprecedented, 
and  unaccountable,  they  had  actually  before  them ;  and 
we  may  estimate  how  it  must  have  helped  and  seemed 

L 


146  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

to  sanction  that  tendency  which  in  any  case  would  have 
carried  them,  circumstanced  as  they  were,  to  find  all  the 
performances  and  career  of  Jesus  miraculous. 

But,  except  for  this,  the  miracles  related  in  the  Gospels 
will  appear  to  us  more  and  more,  the  more  our  experience 
and  knowledge  increases,  to  have  but  the  same  ground 
which  is  common  to  all  miracles,  the  ground  indicated  by 
Shakspeare  ;  to  have  been  generated  under  the  same  kind 
of  conditions  as  other  miracles,  and  to  follow  the  same 
laws.  When  once  the  '  Zeit-Geist '  has  made  us  entertain 
the  notion  of  this,  a  thousand  things  in  the  manner  of 
relating  will  strike  us  which  never  struck  us  before,  and 
will  make  us  wonder  how  we  could  ever  have  thought 
differently.  Discrepancies  which  we  now  labour  with 
such  honest  pains  and  by  such  astonishing  methods  to 
explain  away, — the  voice  at  Paul's  conversion,  heard  by 
the  bystanders  according  to  one  account,  not  heard  by 
them  according  to  another ;  the  Holy  Dove  at  Christ's 
baptism,  visible  to  John  the  Baptist  in  one  narrative,  in  two 
others  to  Jesus  himself,  in  another,  finally,  to  all  the  people 
as  well  j  the  single  blind  man  in  one  relation,  growing 
into  two  blind  men  in  another;  the  speaking  with  tongues, 
according  to  St.  Paul  a  sound  without  meaning,  accord- 
ing to  the  Acts  an  intelligent  and  intelligible  utterance, 
— all  this  will  be  felt  to  require  really  no  explanation 


THE  PROOF  FROM  MIRACLES,  147 

at  all,  to  explain  itself,  to  be  natural  to  the  whole  class  of 
incidents  to  which  these  miracles  belong,  and  the  inevit- 
able result  of  the  looseness  with  which  the  stories  of  them 
arise  and  are  propagated. 

And  the  more  the  miraculousness  of  the  story  deepens, 
as  after  the  death  of  Jesus,  the  more  does  the  texture  of 
the  incidents  become  loose  and  floating,  the  more  does 
the  very  air  and  aspect  of  things  seem  to  tell  us  we  are  in 
wonderland.  Jesus  after  his  resurrection  not  known  by 
Mary  Magdalene,  taken  by  her  for  the  gardener;  appear- 
ing in  another  f 07-111  and  not  known  by  the  two  disciples 
going  with  him  to  Emmaus  and  at  supper  with  him  there; 
not  known  by  his  most  intimate  apostles  on  the  borders 
of  the  Sea  of  Galilee ; — and  presently,  out  of  these  vague 
beginnings,  the  recognitions  getting  asserted,  then  the 
ocular  demonstrations,  the  supreme  commissions,  the  as- 
cension ; — one  hardly  knows  which  of  the  two  to  call  the 
most  evident  here,  the  perfect  simplicity  and  good  faith  of 
the  narrators,  or  the  plainness  with  which  they  themselves 
really  say  to  us  :  Behold  a  legend  growing  under  your  eyes  / 

And  suggestions  of  this  sort,  with  respect  to  the  whole 
miraculous  side  of  the  New  Testament,  will  meet  us  at 
every  turn ;  we  here  but  give  a  sample  of  them.  It  is 
neither  our  wish  nor  our  design  to  accumulate  them,  to 
marshal  them,  to  insist  upon  them,  to  make  their  force 


148  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

felt.  Let  those  who  desire  to  keep  them  at  arms'  length 
continue  to  do  so,  if  they  can,  and  go  on  placing  the 
sanction  of  the  Christian  religion  in  its  miracles.  Our 
point  is,  that  the  objections  to  miracles  do,  and  more  and 
more  will,  without  insistance,  without  attack,  without 
controversy,  make  their  own  force  felt ;  and  that  the  sanc- 
tion of  Christianity,  if  Christianity  is  not  to  be  lost  along 
with  its  miracles,  must  be  found  elsewhere. 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.         149 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD. 

Now,  then,  will  be  perceived  the  bearing  and  gravity  , 
of  what  we  some  little  way  back  said,  that  the  more  we 
convince  ourselves  of  the  liability  of  the  New  Testament 
writers  to  mistake,  the  more  we  really  bring  out  the 
greatness  and  worth  of  the  New  Testament.  For  the  New 
Testament'  exists  to  reveal  Jesus  Christ,  not  to  estabhsh 
the  immunity  of  its  writers  from  error.  Jesus  himself 
is  not  a  New  Testament  writer;  he  is  the  object  of 
description  and  comment  to  the  New  Testament  writers. 
As  the  Old  Testament  speaks  about  the  Eternal  and 
bears  an  invaluable  witness  to  him,  without  yet  ever  ade- 
quately in  words  defining  and  expressing  him ;  so,  and 
even  yet  more,  do  the  New  Testament  writers  speak 
about  Jesus  and  give  a  priceless  record  of  him,  without 
adequately  and  accurately  comprehending  him. 

They  are  altogether  on  another  plane  from  Jesus,  and 
their  mistakes  are  not  his.     It  is  not  Jesus  himself  who 


I50  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

relates  his  own  miracles  to  us  ;  who  tells  us  of  his  own 
apparitions  after  his  death;  who  alleges  his  crucifixion 
and  sufferings  as  a  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy :  The 
Eternal  keepeth  all  the  hones  of  the  i^ighteous  so  that  not 
one  of  them  is  broken;  who  proves  salvation  to  be  by- 
Christ  alone,  from  the  promise  to  Abraham  being  made 
to  seed  in  the  singular  number,  not  the  plural.  If, 
therefore,  the  human  mind  is  now  drawing  away  from 
reliance  on  miracles,  coming  to  perceive  the  community 
of  character  w^iich  pervades  them  all,  to  understand 
their  natural  laws,  so  to  speak, — their  loose  mode  of 
origination  and  their  untrustworthiness, — and  is  inclined 
rather  to  distrust  the  dealer  in  them  than  to  pin  its 
faith  upon  him  ;  then  it  is  good  for  the  authority  of  Jesus, 
that  his  reporters  are  evidently  liable  to  ignorance  and 
error.  He  is  reported  to  deal  in  miracles,  to  be  above  all  a 
thaumaturgist.  But  the  more  his  reporters  were  intellec- 
tually men  of  their  nation  and  time,  and  of  its  current 
beliefs, — the  more,  that  is,  they  were  open  to  mistakes, — 
the  more  certain  they  were  to  impute  miracles  to  a  won- 
derful and  half-understood  personage  like  Jesus,  whether 
he  would  or  no.  He  himself  may,  at  the  same  time, 
have  had  quite  other  notions  as  to  what  he  was  doing  and 
intending. 

Again,  the  mistake  of  imagining  that  the  world  was  to 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.  151 

end,  as  St.  Paul  announces,  within  the  lifetime  of  the  first 
Christian  generation,  is  now  palpable.  The  reporters  of 
Jesus  make  him  announcing  just  the  same  thing  :  '  This 
generation  shall  not  pass  away  till  they  shall  see  the  Son  of 
Man  coming  in  the  clouds  with  great  power  and  glory, 
and  then  shall  he  send  his  angels  and  gather  his  elect 
from  the  four  winds.'  Popular  theology  can  put  a  plain 
satisfactory  sense  upon  this,  but,  as  usual,  through  that 
process  described  by  Butler  by  which  anything  can  be 
made  to  mean  anything  ;  and  from  this  sort  of  process  the 
human  mind  is  beginning  to  shrink.  A  more  plausible 
theology  will  say  that  the  words  are  an  accommodation  ; 
that  the  speaker  lends  himself  to  the  fancies  and  expecta- 
tions of  his  hearers.  A  good  deal  of  such  accommoda- 
tion there  is  in  this  and  other  sayings  of  Jesus ;  but 
accommodation  to  the  full  extent  here  supposed  would 
surely  have  been  impossible.  To  suppose  it,  is  most  violent 
and  unsatisfactory.  Either,  then,  the  words  were,  like  St. 
Paul's  announcement,  a  mistake,  or  they  are  not  really 
the  very  words  Jesus  said,  just  as  he  said  them.  That 
is,  the  reporters  have  given  them  a  turn,  however  slight, 
a  tone  and  a  colour,  to  make  them  comply  with  a 
fixed  idea  in  their  own  minds,  which  they  unfeignedly  be- 
lieved was  a  fixed  idea  with  Jesus  also.  Now,  the  more 
we  regard  the  reporters  of  Jesus  as  men  liable  to  err,  full 


152  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

of  the  turbid  Jewish  fancies  about  ^  the  grand  consumma- 
tion '  which  were  then  current,  the  easier  we  can  under- 
stand these  men  inevitably  putting  their  own  eschatology 
into  the  mouth  of  Jesus,  when  they  had  to  report  his 
discourse  about  the  kingdom  of  God  and  the  troubles  in 
store  for  the  Jewish  nation,  and  the  less  need  have  we  to 
make  Jesus  a  co-partner  in  their  eschatology. 

Again,  the  futility  of  such  demonstrations  from  pro- 
phecy as  those  of  which  we  have  given  examples,  and 
generally  of  all  that  Jewish  exegesis,  based  on  a  mere 
unintelligent  catching  at  the  letter  of  the  Old  Testament, 
isolated  from  its  context  and  real  meaning,  of  which  the 
New  Testament  writers  give  us  so  much,  begins  to  discon- 
cert attentive  readers  of  the  Bible  more  and  more,  and  to 
be  felt  by  them  as  an  embarrassment  to  the  cause  of  Jesus, 
not  a  support.  Well,  then,  it  is  good  for  the  authority  of 
Jesus,  that  those  who  establish  it  by  arguments  of  this 
^ort  should  be  clearly  men  of  their  race  and  time,  not 
above  its  futile  methods  of  reasoning  and  demonstration. 
The  more  they  were  this,  and  the  more  they  were  sure  to 
mix  up  much  futile  logic  and  exegesis  with  their  presenta- 
tion of  Jesus,  the  less  is  Jesus  himself  responsible  for  such 
logic  and  exegesis,  or  at  all  dependent  upon  it.  He  may 
himself  have  rated  such  argumentation  at  precisely  its 
true  value,  and  have  based  his  mission  and  authority 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.         153 

upon  no  grounds  but  solid  ones.  Whedier  he  did  so  or 
not,  his  hearers  and  reporters  were  sure  to  base  it  on 
their  own  fantastic  grounds  also,  and  to  credit  Jesus  with 
doing  the  same. 

In  short,  the  more  we  conceive  Jesus  as  almost  as 
inuch  over  the  heads  of  his  disciples  and  reporters  as  he 
is  over  the  heads  of  the  mass  of  so-called  Christians  now, 
the  more  we  see  his  disciples  to  have  been,  as  they  were, 
men  raised  by  a  truer  moral  susceptiveness  above  their 
countrymen,  but  in  intellectual  conceptions  and  habits 
much  on  a  par  with  them,  all  the  more  do  we  make 
room,  so  to  speak,  for  Jesus  to  be  inconceivably  great 
and  wonderful ;  as  wonderful  as  anything  his  reporters 
imagined  him  to  be,  though  in  a  different  manner. 


We  make  room  for  him  to  be  this,  and  through  the 
inadequate  reporting  of  his  followers  there  breaks  and 
shines,  and  will  more  and  more  break  and  shine  the 
more  the  matter  is  examined,  abundant  evidence  that  he 
was  this.  It  is  most  remarkable,  and  the  best  proof  of 
the  simplicity,  seriousness,  and  good  faith  which  inter- 
course with  Jesus  Christ  inspired,  that  witnesses  with  a 
fixed  prepossession,  and  having  no  doubt  at  all  as  to  the 


154  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

interpretation  to  be  put  on  Christ's  acts  and  career,  should 
yet  admit  so  much  of  what  makes  against  themselves  and 
their  own  power  of  interpreting.  For  them,  it  was  a  thing 
beyond  all  doubt  that  by  miracles  Christ  manifested  forth 
his  glory  and  induced  the  faithful  to  believe  in  him ;  yet 
what  checks  to  this  paramount  and  all-governing  belief  of 
theirs  do  they  report  from  Christ  himself!  Everybody 
will  be  able  to  recall  such  checks,  although  he  may  never 
yet  have  been  accustomed  to  consider  their  full  signifi- 
cance. Except  ye  see  signs  and  wonders,  ye  will  not  believe  I 
— as  much  as  to  say  :  '  Believe  on  right  grounds  you  can- 
not, and  you  must  needs  believe  on  wrong ! '  And  again  : 
*  Believe  me  that  I  am  in  the  Father  and  the  Father  in 
me  j  or  else  believe  for  the  very  works'  sake  ! ' — as  much  as 
to  say  :  *  Acknowledge  me  on  the  ground  of  my  healing 
and  restoring  acts  being  miraculous,  if  you  must;  but  it  is 
not  the  right  ground.'  No,  not  the  right  ground ;  and 
when  Nicodemus  came  and  would  put  conversion  on  this 
ground  ('We  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from 
God,  for  no  one  can  do  the  miracles  that  thou  doest  except 
God  be  with  him'),  Jesus  rejoined  :  'Verily,  verily,  I  say 
unto  thee,  except  a  maji  be  bo?'nfrom  above,  he  cannot  see 
the  kingdom  of  God  ! '  thus  tacitly  changing  his  disciple's 
ground  and  correcting  him.  Even  distress  and  impatience 
at  this  false  ground  being  taken  is  visible  sometimes  : 


THE  NEW   TESTAMENT  RECORD.  155 


'  Jesus  groaned  m  his  spirit  and  said,  Why  doth  this 
generation  ask  for  a  sign  ?  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  there 
shall  no  sign  be  given  to  this  generation  ! '  Wlio  does  not 
see  what  double  and  treble  importance  these  checks  of 
Jesus  to  the  reliance  on  miracles  gain,  from  their  being 
reported  by  those  who  relied  on  miracles  devoutly  ?  Who 
does  not  see  what  a  clue  they  offer  as  to  the  real  mind  of 
Jesus  ?  To  convey  at  all  to  such  hearers  of  him  that  there 
was  any  objection  to  miracles,  his  own  sense  of  the 
objection  must  have  been  profound ;  and  to  get  them,  who 
neither  shared  nor  understood  it,  to  repeat  it  a  few 
times,  he  must  have  repeated  it  many  times.  ^ 

Take,  again,  the  eschatology  of  the  disciples,  their 
notion  of  final  things  and  of  the  approaching  great  judg- 
ment and  end  of  the  world.  This  consisted  mainly  in  a 
literal  appropriation  of  the  apocalyptic  pictures  of  the 
book  of  Daniel  and  the  book  of  Enoch,  and  a  transference 
of  them  to  Christ  and  his  kingdom.  It  is  not  surprising, 
certainly,  that  men  with  the  mental  range  of  their  time,  and 
with  so  little  flexibility  of  thought,  that,  when  Jesus  told 
them  to  beware  of  '  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees,'  or  when 
he  called  himself  '  the  bread  of  life '  and  said.  He  that 
eateth  me  shall  live  by  me  I  they  stuck  hopelessly  fast  in  the 
literal  meaning  of  the  words,  and  were  accordingly  puzzled 
or  else  offended  by  them, — it  is  not  surprising  that  these 


156  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

men  should  have  been  incapable  of  dealing  in  a  large 
spirit  with  the  prophecies  of  Daniel,  that  they  should  have 
applied  them  to  Christ  narrowly  and  literally,  and  should 
therefore  have  conceived  his  kingdom  unintelligently. 
This  is  not  remarkable  ;  what  is  remarkable  is,  that  they 
should  themselves  supply  us  with  their  Master's  blame 
of  their  too  literal  criticism,  his  famous  sentence  :  *  The 
kingdom  of  God  is  within  you  ! '  Such  an  account  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  has  more  right,  even  if  recorded  only  once, 
to  pass  with  us  for  Jesus  Christ's  own  account,  than  the 
common  materialising  accounts,  if  repeated  twenty  times; 
for  it  was  manifestly  quite  foreign  to  the  disciples'  own 
notions,  and  they  could  never  have  invented  it.  Evidence 
of  the  same  kind,  again,  evidence  borne  by  the  reporters 
themselves  against  their  own  power  of  rightly  under- 
standing what  Christ,  on  this  topic  of  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  its  coming,  meant  to  say,  is  Christ's  warning  to 
his  apostles,  that  the  subject  of  final  things  was  one  where 
they  were  all  out  of  their  depth  :  '  //  is  not  for  you  to 
know  the  times  and  the  seasons  which  the  Father  hath 
put  in  his  own  power.' 

So,  too,  with  the  use  of  prophecy  and  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment generally.  A  very  small  experience  of  Jewish 
exegesis  will  convince  us  that,  in  the  disciples,  their 
catching  at  the  letter  of  the  Scriptures,  and  mistaking  this 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD. 


play  with  words  for  serious  argument,  was  nothing  extra- 
ordinary. The  extraordinary  thing  is  that  Jesus,  even  in 
the  report  of  these  critics,  uses  Scripture  in  a  totally 
•different  manner  ;  he  wields  it  as  an  instrument  of  which 
lie  truly  possesses  the  use.  Either  he  puts  prophecy  into 
iict,  and  by  the  startling  point  thus  made  he  engages  the 
popular  imagination  on  his  side,  makes  the  popular  fami- 
liarity with  prophecy  serve  him ;  as  w^hen  he  rides  into 
Jerusalem  on  an  ass,  or  clears  the  Temple  of  buyers  and 
sellers.  Or  else  he  applies  Scripture  in  what  is  called  '  a 
superior  spirit,'  to  make  it  yield  to  narrow-minded  hearers 
a  lesson  of  wisdom ;  as,  for  instance,  to  rebuke  a  supersti- 
tious observance  of  the  Sabbath  he  employs  the  incident 
of  David's  taking  the  shewbread.  His  reporters,  in  short, 
are  the  servants  of  the  Scripture-letter,  Jesus  is  its 
master ;  and  it  is  from  the  very  men  who  were  servants 
to  it  themselves  that  we  learn  that  he  was  master  of  it. 
How  signal,  therefore,  must  this  mastery  have  been!  how 
eminently  and  strikingly  different  from  the  treatment 
known  and  practised  by  the  disciples  themselves. 

Finally,  for  the  reporters  of  Jesus  the  rule  was,  un- 
doubtedly, that  men  '  believed  on  Jesus  ivhen  they  saiv  the 
miracles  which  he  did.'  Miracles  were  in  these  reporters* 
eyes,  beyond  question,  the  evidence  of  the  Christian  reli- 
gion.   And  yet  these  same  reporters  indicate  another  and 


IS8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


a  totally  different  evidence  offered  for  the  Christian 
religion  by  Jesus  himself.  Every  one  that  heareth  and 
learneth  from  the  Father  cometh  unto  me.  As  the  Fathei' 
hath  taught  me,  so  I  speak;  he  that  is  of  God  heareth  the 
words  of  God;  if  God  7C'as  your  Father,  ye  would  have 
loved  me!  This  is  inward  evidence,  direct  evidence. 
From  that  previous  knowledge  of  God,  as  '  the  Eternal 
that  loveth  righteousness,'  which  Israel  possessed,  the 
hearers  of  Jesus  could  and  should  have  concluded  irresis- 
tibly, when  they  heard  his  words,  that  he  came  from  God. 
Now,  miracles  are  outward  evidence,  indirect  evidence, 
not  conclusive  in  this  fashion.  To  walk  on  the  sea  can- 
not really  prove  a  man  to  proceed  from  the  Eternal  that 
loveth  righteousness  ;  although  undoubtedly,  as  we  have 
said,  a  man  who  walks  on  the  sea  will  be  able  to  make 
the  mass  of  mankind  believe  about  him  nearly  anything  he 
chooses  to  say.  But  there  is,  after  all,  no  necessary 
connexion  between  walking  on  the  sea  and  proceeding 
from  the  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness.  Jesus  pro- 
pounds, on  the  other  hand,  an  evidence  of  which  the 
whole  force  lies  in  the  necessary  connexion  between  the 
proving  matter  and  the  power  that  makes  for  righteous- 
ness.    This  is  his  evidence  for  the  Christian  religion. 

His  disciples  experienced  the  evidence,  indeed.     Peter's 
answer  to  the  question  'Will  ye  also  go  away?' — 'To 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.         159 

whom  should  we  go  ?  t/ioti  hast  the  woi'ds  of  eternal  life  I  * 
proves  it.  But  experienchig  a  thing  is  very  different  from 
understanding  and  possessing  it.  The  evidence,  which 
the  disciples  were  conscious  of  understanding  and  possess- 
ing, was  the  evidence  from  miracles.  And  yet,  in  their 
report,  Jesus  is  plainly  shown  to  us  insisting  on  a  different 
evidence,  an  internal  one.  The  character  of  the  reporters 
gives  to  this  indication  a  paramount  importance.  That 
they  should  indicate  this  internal  evidence  once,  as  the 
evidence  on  which  Jesus  insisted,  is  more  significant,  we 
repeat,  than  their  indicating,  twenty  times,  the  evidence 
from  miracles  as  the  evidence  naturally  convincing  to 
mankind  and  recommended,  as  they  thought,  by  Jesus. 
The  notion  of  the  one  evidence  they  would  have  of  them- 
selves ;  the  notion  of  the  other  they  could  only  get  from  a 
superior  mind.  This  mind  must  have  been  full  of  it  to 
make  them  feel  it  at  all ;  and  their  exhibition  of  it,  even 
then,  must  of  necessity  be  inadequate  and  broken. 

But  is  it  possible  to  over-rate  the  value  of  the  ground 
thus  gained  for  showing  the  riches  of  the  New  Testament 
to  those,  who,  sick  of  the  popular  arguments  from 
prophecy,  sick  of  the  popular  arguments  from  miracles^ 
are  for  casting  the  New  Testament  aside  altogether  %  The 
book  contains  all  that  we  know  of  a  wonderful  spirit,  far 
above  the  heads  of  his  reporters,  still  farther  above  the 


i6o  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

head  of  our  popular  theology,  which  has  added  its  own 
misunderstanding  of  the  reporters  to  the  reporters'  mis- 
understanding of  Jesus.  And  it  was  quite  inevitable  that 
anything  so  superior  and  so  profound  should  be  im- 
perfectly understood  by  those  amongst  whom  it  first 
appeared,  and  for  a  very  long  time  afterwards  ;  and  that  it 
should  come  at  last  gradually  to  stand  out  clearer  only  by 
time, — Time  J  as  the  Greek  maxim  says,  the  wisest  of  all 
things,  for  he  is  the  u? failing  discoverer. 

Yet,  however  much  is  discovered,  the  object  of  our 
scrutiny  must  still  be  beyond  us,  must  still  transcend  our 
adequate  knowledge,  if  for  no  other  reason,  because  of  the 
character  of  the  first  and  only  records  of  him.  But  in  the 
view  now  taken  we  have, — even  at  the  point  to  which  we 
have  already  come, — at  least  a  wonderful  figure  transcend- 
ing his  time,  transcending  his  disciples,  attaching  them  but 
transcending  them  ;  in  very  much  that  he  uttered  going 
far  above  their  heads,  treating  Scripture  and  prophecy  like 
a  master  while  they  treated  it  like  children,  resting  his 
doctrine  on  internal  evidence  while  they  rested  it  on 
miracles;  and  yet,  by  his  incomparable  lucidity  and 
penetrativeness,  planting  his  profound  veins  of  thought 
in  their  memory  along  with  their  own  notions  and  pre- 
possessions, to  come  out  all  mixed  up  together,  but  still 
distinguishable  one  day  and  separable  ;— and  leaving 
his  word  thus  to  bear  fruit  for  the  future. 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.         i6i 


Surely  to  follow  and  extract  these  veins  of  true  ore  is  a 
wise  man's  business ;  not  to  let  them  lie  neglected  and 
unused,  because  the  beds  where  they  are  found  are  not  all 
of  the  same  quality  with  them.  The  beds  are  invaluable 
because  they  contain  the  ore ;  and,  though  the  search  for 
it  in  them  is  undoubtedly  a  grave  and  difficult  quest,  yet 
it  is  not  a  quest  of  the  elaborate  and  endless  kind  that  it 
will  at  first,  perhaps,  be  fancied  to  be.  It  is  a  quest  with 
this  for  its  governing  idea  :  Jesus  Christ  was  over  the  heads 
^f  his  reporters;  what,  therefore,  in  their  report  of  him,  is 
Jesus,  and  what  is  the  reporters  ? 

Now,  this  excludes  as  unessential  much  of  the  criticism 
which  is  bestowed  on  the  New  Testament,  and  gives  a 
sure  point  of  view  for  the  remainder.  And  what  it 
excludes  is  those  questions  as  to  the  exact  date,  the  real 
authorship,  the  first  publication,  the  rank  of  priority,  of 
the  Gospels  ; — questions  which  have  a  great  attraction  for 
critics,  which  are  in  themselves  good  to  be  entertained, 
which  lead  to  much  close  and  fruitful  observation  of  the 
texts,  and  in  which  very  high  ingenuity  may  be  shown  and 
very  great  plausibility  reached,  but  not  more; — they 
cannot  be  really  settled,  the  data  are  insufficient.  And 
for   our  purpose  they  are  not  essential.     Neither  is  it 

M 


i62  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

essential  for  our  purpose  to  get  at  the  very  primitive  text 
of  the  New  Testament  writers,  deeply  interesting  and 
deeply  important  as  this  is.  The  changes  that  have 
befallen  the  text  show,  no  doubt,  the  constant  tendency 
of  popular  Christianity  to  add  to  the  element  of  theurgy 
and  thaumaturgy,  to  increase  and  develope  it.  To  clear 
the  text  of  these,  will  show  the  New  Testament  writers  to 
have  been  less  preoccupied  with  this  tendency,  and  is,  so 
far,  very  instructive.  But  it  will  not,  by  re-estabhshing 
the  real  words  of  the  writers,  necessarily  give  the  real  truth 
as  to  Jesus  Christ's  religion ;  because  to  the  writers  them- 
selves this  religion  was,  in  a  considerable  degree  certainly, 
a  theurgy  and  a  thaumaturgy,  although  not  in  the 
mechanical  and  extravagant  way  that  it  is  in  our  present 
popular  theology. 

For  instance ;  the  famous  text  of  the  three  heavenly 
witnesses  is  an  imposture,  and  an  extravagant  one.  It 
shows  us,  no  doubt,  theologians  like  the  Bishop  of 
Gloucester  already  at  work, — men  with  more  metaphysics 
than  literary  tact,  full  of  the  Arj'an  genius,  of  the  notion 
that  religion  is  a  metaphysical  conception  ;  anxious  to  do 
something  for  the  thesis  of  '  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal 
Son,'  or  of  '  the  blessed  truth  that  the  God  of  the  universe 
is  a  person,' — or  as  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester  writes  it, 
*  PERSON,' — and    so    on.      But   sofnethmg  of  the  same 


THE  NEW   TESTAMENT  RECORD.  163 

intention  is  unquestionably  visible, — never,  indeed,  in 
Jesus,  but  in  the  author  of  tlic  Fourth  Gospel.  Much  of 
the  conversation  with  Nicodemus  is  a  proof  of  it ;  the 
46th  verse  of  the  sixth  chapter  is  a  signal  proof  of  it.  One 
can  there  almost  see  the  author,  after  recording  Christ's- 
words  :  Every  one  that  heajxth  and  learneth  of  the  Father 
Cometh  unto  me,  take  alarm  at  the  notion  that  this  looks 
too  downright  and  natural,  and,  sincerely  persuaded 
that  he  ^  did  something '  for  the  honour  of  Jesus  by 
making  him  more  abstract,  bring  in  and  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Jesus  the  46th  verse  :  Not  that  aiiy  one  hath  seen 
the  Father,  except  he  that  is  from  God,  he  hath  seen  the 
Father.  This  verse  has  neither  rhyme  nor  reason  where 
it  stands  in  Christ's  discourse,  it  jars  with  the  words  which 
precede  and  follow,  and  is  in  quite  another  vein  from 
them.     Yet  it  is  the  author's  own,  it  is  no  interpolation. 

Again;  Unitarians  lay  much  stress  on  the  probability  that 
in  the  first  words  of  St.  Mark's  Gospel:  'The  beginning  of 
the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,'  the  Son  of 
God  is  an  interpolation.  And,  no  doubt,  if  the  words  are 
an  interpolation,  this  shows  that  the  desire  to  prove  the 
dogma  of  Christ's  Godhead  was  not  so  painfully  ever- 
present  to  the  writer  of  the  Second  Gospel  as  it  became  to 
later  theologians.  But  it  shows  no  more ;  it  does  not 
show  that  he  had  the  least  doubt  about  Jesus  being  the 


l64  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


Son  of  God.     Ten  verses  later,  in  an  undisputed  passage, 
he  calls  him  so. 

Again,  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  same  Gospel, -all  that 
follows  the  eighth  verse,— all  the  account  of  Christ's  resur- 
rection and  ascension, — is  probably  an  addition  by  a  later 
hand.  But  the  resurrection  is  plainly  indicated  in  the 
first  eight  verses;  and  that  the  writer  of  the  Second 
Gospel  stops  after  the  eighth  verse,  proves  rather  that  he 
was  writing  briefly  than  that  he  did  not  believe  in  the 
resurrection  and  ascension  as  much  as,  for  instance,  the 
writer  of  the  Third  Gospel;  unless  indeed,  there  are 
other  signs  (for  example,  in  his  way  of  relating  such  an 
incident  as  the  Transfiguration)  to  show  that  he  was 
suspicious  of  the  preternatural.  But  there  are  none  ;  and 
he  plainly  was  not,  and  could  not  have  been. 

Again;  it  seems  impossible  that  the  very  primitive 
original  of  the  First  Gospel  should  have  made  Jesus  say, 
that  '  the  sign  of  Jonas '  consisted  in  his  being  three  days 
and  three  nights  in  the  whale's  belly,  as  the  Son  of  Man 
was  to  be  a  like  time  in  the  heart  of  the  earth.  It  spoils 
the  argument,  and  in  another  place  the  argument  is  given 
simply  and  rightly.  Jonas  was  a  sign  to  the  Jews,  because 
the  Ninevites  repented  at  his  preaching  and  a  greater 
than  Jonas  stood  now  preaching  to  the  Jews.  But 
whether  the   words   are   genuine   (and  there  seems  no 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.  165 


evidence  to  the  contrary)  in  that  particular  place  or  not, 
to  get  rid  of  them  brings  us  really  but  a  very  little  way^ 
when  it  is  plain  that  their  argument  is  exactly  one  which 
the  evangelists  would  be  disposed  to  use,  and  to  think 
that  Jesus  meant  to  use.  For  so  they  make  him  to  have 
said,  for  instance  :  Destroy  this  temple,  and  in  three  days 
I  will  raise  it  tip  I  in  prediction  of  his  own  death  and 
resurrection. 

In  short,  to  know  accurately  the  history  of  our  docu- 
ments is  impossible,  and  even  if  it  were  possible,  we 
should  yet  not  know  accurately  what  Jesus  said  and  did ; 
for  his  reporters  were  incapable  of  rendering  it,  he  was  so 
much  above  them.  This  is  the  important  thing  to  get 
clearly  fixed  in  our  minds.  And  the  more  it  becomes 
established  to  us,  the  more  we  shall  see  the  futiHty  of  what 
is  called  rationalism,  and  the  rationalistic  treatment  of  the 
New  Testament ;— of  the  endeavour,  that  is,  to  reduce  all 
the  supernatural  in  it  to  real  events,  much  resembling 
what  is  related,  which  have  got  a  little  magnified  and 
coloured  by  being  seen  through  the  eyes  of  men  having 
certain  prepossessions,  but  may  easily  be  brought  back  to 
their  true  proportions  and  made  historical  and  reasonable. 
A  famous  specimen  of  this  kind  of  treatment  is  Schleier- 
macher's  fancy  of  the  death  on  the  cross  having  been  a 
swoon,  and  the  resurrection   of  Jesus  a  recovery  from 


i66  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


this  swoon.  Victorious  indeed,  whatever  may  be  in 
other  ways  his  own  shortcomings,  is  Dr.  Strauss's  demo- 
lition of  this  error  of  Schleiermacher's  !  Like  the  rational- 
istic treatment  of  Scripture  throughout,  it  makes  far 
more  difficulties  than  it  solves,  and  rests  on  too  narrow  a 
conception  of  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  and  of  its 
diversities  of  operation  and  production.  It  puts  ourselves 
in  the  original  disciples'  place,  imagines  the  original  disci- 
ples to  have  been  men  rational  in  our  sense  and  way,  and 
then  explains  their  record  as  it  might  be  made  explicable 
if  it  were  ours.  And  it  may  safely  be  said  that  in  this 
fashion  it  is  not  explicable.  Imaginations  so  little  creative 
and  with  so  substantial  a  framework  of  fact  for  each  of 
their  wonderful  stories  as  this  theory  assumes,  would  never 
have  created  so  much  as  they  did ;  at  least,  they  could 
not  have  done  so  and  retained  their  manifest  simplicity 
and  good  faith.  They  must  have  fallen,  we  in  like  case 
should  fall,  into  arrangement  and  artifice. 

But  the  original  disciples  were  not  men  rational  in  our 
sense  and  way.  The  realwonderfulness  of  Jesus,  and  their 
belief  in  him,  being  given,  they  needed  no  such  full  and 
parallel  body  of  fact  for  each  miracle  as  we  suppose. 
Some  hint  and  help  of  fact,  undoubtedly,  there  always 
was,  and  we  naturally  seek  to  explore  it.  Sometimes  our 
guesses  may  be  right,  sometimes  wrong,  but  we  can  never 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.         167 

be  sure^  the  range  of  possibility  is  so  wide  ;  and  we  may 
easily  make  them  too  elaborate.  Shakspeare's  explanation 
is  far  the  soundest : — 

No  natural  exhalation  in  the  sky, 
No  scape  of  nature,  no  distemper'd  day, 
No  common  wind,  no  customed  event. 
But  they  will  pluck  away  his  natural  cause, 
And  call  them  meteors,  prodigies,  and  signs, 
Abortives,  presages,  and  tongues  of  heaven. 

And  it  must  be  remembered,  moreover,  that  of  none 
of  these  recorders  have  we,  probably,  the  very  original 
record.  The  record,  when  we  first  get  it,  has  passed 
through  at  least  half  a  century,  or  more,  of  oral  tradition, 
^nd  through  more  than  one  written  account.  Miraculous 
incidents  swell  and  grow  apace  ;  they  are  just  the  elements 
of  a  tradition  that  swell  and  grow  most.  These  incidents, 
therefore,  in  the  history  of  Jesus,  the  preternatural  things 
he  did,  the  preternatural  things  that  befell  him,  are  just 
the  parts  of  the  record  which  are  least  solid.  Beyond 
the  historic  outlines  of  the  life  of  Jesus, — his  Galilean 
origin,  his  preaching  in  Galilee,  his  preaching  in  Jerusa- 
lem, his  crucifixion, — much  the  firmest  element  in  the 
record  is  his  words.  Happily  it  is  of  these  that  he  him- 
self said  :  '  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are 
spirit  and  they  are  life.*     But  in  reading  them,  we  have 


i68  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

still  to  bear  in  mind  our  governing  idea,  that  they  are 
words  of  one  inadequately  comprehended  by  his  hearers y 
men  though  these  be  of  pureness  of  heart,  discernment 
to  know  and  love  the  good,  perfect  uprightness  of 
intention,  faithful  simplicity. 

What  they  will  have  reported  best,  probably,  is  dis- 
course where  there  was  the  framework  of  a  story  and  its 
application  to  guide  them, — discourse  such  as  the  parables. 
Instructive  and  beautiful  as  the  parables  are,  however, 
they  have  not  the  importance  of  the  direct  teaching  of 
Jesus.  But  in  his  direct  teaching  we  are  on  the  surest 
ground  in  single  sentences,  which  have  their  ineffaceable 
and  unforgettable  stamp  :  My  yoke  is  kindly  and  my  bur- 
den light ; — Many  are  called,  few  chosen; — They  that  are 
whole  need  not  a  physician^  but  they  that  ai'esick; — No  man 
having  put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and  looking  back,  is  fit 
for  the  kijigdom  of  God.  The  longer  trains  of  discourse^ 
and  many  sayings  in  immediate  connexion  with  miracles, 
present  much  more  difficulty.  Probably  there  are  very 
few  sayings  attributed  to  Jesus  which  do  not  contain  what 
he  on  some  occasion  actually  said,  or  much  of  what  he 
actually  said.  But  the  connexion,  the  juncture,  is  plainly 
often  missed  ;  things  are  put  out  of  their  true  place  and 
order.  Failure  of  memory  would  occasionally  cause 
this  with  any  reporters  ;  failure  of  comprehension  would 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.         169 

with  the  reporters  of  Jesus  frequently  cause  it.  The 
surrounding  tradition  insensibly  biases  them,  their  love 
of  miracles  biases  them,  their  eschatology  biases  them. 
All  these  three  exercise  an  attraction  on  words  of  Jesus, 
and  draw  them  into  occasions,  placings,  and  turns,  which 
are  not  exactly  theirs.  The  one  safe  guide  to  the  extri- 
cation and  right  reception  of  what  comes  from  Jesus  is  the 
internal  evidence.  And  wherever  we  find  what  enforces 
this  evidence  or  builds  upon  it,  there  we  may  be  especially 
sure  that  we  are  on  the  trace  of  Jesus ;  because  turn  or 
bias  in  this  direction  the  disciples  were  more  likely  to 
omit  from  his  discourse  than  to  import  into  it,  they  were 
themselves  so  wholly  preoccupied  with  the  evidence  from 
miracles. 

4- 
This  is  what  gives  such  eminency  and  value  to  the 
Fourth   Gospel.^     The    confident   certainty  with  which 

'  Foreign  critics  object  that  the  Fourth  Gospel  has  been  proved 
by  Baur  to  be  entirely  unhistorical,  and  to  give  for  sayings  of  Jesus, 
wherever  it  does  not  follow  the  synoptics,  the  free  inventions  of 
some  Christian  dogmatist  of  late  date.  So  little  do  I  think  Baur  to 
have  proved  this  that  I  hold  adherence  to  his  thesis  to  be  a  conclu- 
sive sign  of  the  adherent's  want  of  real  critical  insight.  To  discuss 
controversially  in  the  text  the  date,  mode  of  composition,  and 
character  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  would  be  quite  unsuitable  to  the 
design  of  the  present  work.     But  I  had  intended  to  discuss  these 


I70  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Professor  Ewald  settles  tlie  authorship  of  this  gospel, 
and  assigns  it  to  St.  John,  is  an  exhibition  of  that 
learned  man's  weakness.  To  settle  the  authorship  is 
impossible,  the  data  are  insufficient ;  but  from  what 
data  we  have,  to  believe  that  the  Gospel  is  St.  John's  is 
extremely  difficult.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  stress 
which  Professor  Ewald,  following  Luther,  lays  on  this 
gospel,  the  value  he  attributes  to  it,  is  an  exhibition  of 
his  power, — of  his  deep,  sure  feeling,  and  true  insight,  in 
the  essential  matters  of  religious  history;  and  of  his 
superiority,  here,  to  the  best  of  his  rivals,  Baur,  Dr.  Strauss, 
M.  Renan.  '  The  true  evangelical  bread,*  says  Dr.  Strauss, 
*  Christians  have  always  gone  to  the  three  first  gospels  for ! ' 
But  what  then  means  this  sentence  of  Luther,  who  stands 
as  such  a  good,  though  favourable,  representative  of  ordi- 
nary Christianity  :  '  John's  gospel  is  the  one  proper  chief- 
gospel,  and  far  to  be  preferred  to  the  three  others'? 
Again,  M.  Renan,  often  so  ingenious  as  well  as  eloquent, 
says  that  the  narrative  and  incidents  in  the  Fourth  Gospel 
are  probably  in  the  main  historical,  the  discourses  in- 
vented !     Reverse  the  proposition,  and  it  would  be  more 

matters  in  a  review,  at  the  end  of  the  volume,  of  the  chief  objections 
brought  against  it.  I  find,  however,  that  to  do  so  would  too  much 
increase  the  size  of  the  present  book,  and  too  long  delay  its  repub- 
lication. I  propose,  therefore,  to  notice  objections,  and  amongst 
them  this  as  to  my  use  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  elsewhere. 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.  ivr 


plausible !  The  narrative,  so  meagre,  and  skipping  so 
unaccountably  backwards  and  forwards  between  Galilee 
and  Jerusalem, might  well  bethought,  not  indeed  invented, 
but  a  matter  of  infinitely  little  care  and  attention  to 
the  writer  of  the  gospel,  a  mere  slight  framework  in 
Avhich  to  set  the  doctrine  and  discourses  of  Jesus.  The 
doctrine  and  discourses  of  Jesus,  on  the  other  hand, 
cannot  in  the  main  be  the  writer's,  because  in  the  main 
they  are  clearly  out  of  his  reach. 

The  Fourth  Gospel  delights  the  heart  of  M.  Burnouf. 
For  its  writer  shows,  M.  Burnouf  thinks,  signal  traces 
of  the  Aryan  genius,  has  much  to  favour  the  notion  that 
religion  is  a  metaphysical  conception,  and  was  perhaps 
even  capable,  with  time,  of  reaching  the  grand  truth  that 
God  is  a  cosmic  unity.  And  undoubtedly  the  writer  of 
the  Fourth  Gospel  seems  to  have  come  in  contact,  in 
Asia  or  Egypt,  with  Aryan  metaphysics  whether  from 
India  or  Greece ;  and  to  have  had  this  advantage,  what- 
ever it  amounts  to,  in  writing  his  gospel.  But  who,  that 
has  eyes  to  read,  cannot  see  the  difference  between  the 
places  in  his  gospel,  such  as  the  introduction,  where  the 
wTiter  speaks  in  his  own  person,  and  the  places  where 
Jesus  himself  speaks  ?  The  moment  Jesus  speaks,  the 
metaphysical  apparatus  falls  away,  the  simple  intuition 
takes  its  place  ;  and  wherever  in  the  discourse  of  Jesus 


172  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 


the  metaphysical  apparatus  is  intruded,  it  jars  with  the 
context,  breaks  the  unity  of  the  discourse,  impairs  the 
thought,  and  comes  evidently  from  the  writer,  not  Jesus. 
It  may  seem  strange  and  incredible  to  M.  Burnouf 
that  metaphysics  should  not  always  confer  the  supe- 
riority upon  their  possessor  ;  but  such  is  the  case. 

Who,  again,  cannot  understand  that  the  philosophical 
acquirements  of  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  like  the 
rabbinical  training  and  intellectual  activity  of  Paul,  though 
they  may  have  sometimes  led  each  of  them  astray,  must 
yet  have  given  each  of  them  a  range  of  thought,  and  an 
enlarged  mental  horizon,  enabling  them  to  perceive  and 
follow  ideas  of  Jesus  which  escaped  the  ken  of  the  more 
scantily  endowed  authors  of  the  synoptical  gospels  ? 
Plato  sophisticates  somewhat  the  genuine  Socrates  ;  but 
it  is  very  doubtful  whether  the  culture  and  mental  energy 
of  Plato  did  not  give  him  a  more  adequate  vision  of  the 
true  Socrates  than  Xenophon  had.  It  proves  nothing 
for  the  superiority  of  the  first  three  gospels  that  their 
authors  are  without  the  logic  of  Paul  and  the  metaphysics 
of  John  (by  this  commonly-received  name  let  us  for 
shortness'  sake  call  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel), 
and  that  Jesus  also  was  without  them.  Jesus  was  without 
them  because  he  was  above  them ;  the  authors  of  the 
synoptical  gospels  because  they  were  (we  say  it  without 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.  173 

any  disrespect)  below  them.  Therefore,  the  author  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  by  the  very  characters  which  make  him 
inferior  to  Jesus,  was  made  superior  to  the  three  synop- 
tics, and  better  able  than  they  to  seize  and  reproduce 
the  higher  teaching  of  Jesus. 

Does  it  follow,  then,  that  his  picture  of  Christ's 
teaching  can  have  been  his  own  invention  ?  By  no 
means  ;  since  it  is  as  plainly  over  his  head  (at  that  time 
of  day  it  could  not  have  been  otherwise)  as  it  is  over 
theirs.  He  deals  in  miracles  as  confidingly  as  they 
do,  while  unconsciously  indicating,  far  more  than  they 
do,  that  the  evidence  of  miracles  is  superseded.  In 
those  two  great  chapters,  the  fifth  and  sixth,  where 
Jesus  deals  with  the  topics  of  life,  death,  and  judgment, 
and  with  his  thesis  :  He  that  eateth  me  shall  live  by  me  I 
invaluable  and  full  of  light  as  is  what  is  given,  the  escha- 
tology  and  the  materialising  conceptions  of  the  writer  do 
yet  evidently  intervene,  as  they  did  with  all  the  disciples, 
as  they  did  with  the  Jews  in  general,  to  hinder  a  per- 
fectly faithful  mirroring  of  the  thought  of  Jesus.  AVe 
have  already  remarked  how  his  metaphysical  acquirements 
intervene  in  like  manner.  In  the  discourse  with  Nicodemus 
in  the  third  chapter,  from  the  thirteenth  verse  to  the  end, 
phrases  and  expressions  of  Jesus  of  the  highest  worth  are 
scattered ;  but  they  are  manifestly  set  in  a  short  theo- 


174  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


logical  lecture  interposed  by  the  writer  himself,  a  lecture 
which  is,  as  a  whole,  \vithout  vital  connexion  with  the 
genuine  discourse  of  Jesus,  and  needing  only  to  be 
carefully  studied  side  by  side  with  this  for  its  dispa- 
rateness to  become  apparent. 

But  a  failure  of  right  understanding,  which  will  be 
visible  to  every  one,  occurs  with  this  writer  in  his 
seventh  chapter.  Jesus,  with  a  reference  to  words  of 
the  second  Isaiah,^  says  here  :  '  He  that  believeth  on  me, 
as  the  Scripture  saith,  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow  rivers 
of  living  water.'  The  thought  is  plain  ;  it  belongs  to 
the  same  order  as  that  of  the  saying  :  '  If  any  thirst, 
let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink ; '  or  of  the  words 
to  the  woman  of  Samaria :  '  If  thou  hadst  known  the 
gift  of  God,  and  who  it  is  that  talketh  with  thee,  thou 
wouldst  have  asked  of  him  and  he  would  have  given 
thee  living  water.'  It  means  that  a  man,  receiving 
Jesus,  finds  a  source  of  refreshment  for  himself  and  be- 
comes a  source  of  refreshment  for  others  ;  and  it  means 
this  generally,  without  any  limitation  to  a  special  time. 
But  the  reporter  explains  :  '  Now  this  he  said  concerning 
the  Spirit  {Pncumd)  which   they  who  believed  on  him 

'  Chap.  Iviii,  lo,  where  it  is  promised  to  the  righteous  :  '  Th6u 
shalt  be  like  a  watered  garden,  and  hkc  a  spring  of  water,  \\'hose 
waters  fail  not.' 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.  17J 


should  receive;  for  Piieuma  was  not  yet,  because  Jesus  was 
not  yet  glorified.'  A  clearer  instance  of  a  narrow  and 
mechanical  interpretation  of  a  great  and  free  thought  can 
hardly  be  imagined;  and  the  words  of  Jesus  himself 
enable  us  here  to  control  the  inadequacy  of  the  interpre- 
tation, and  to  make  it  palpable. 

So  that  the  superior  point  of  view  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  the  more  spiritual  treatment  of  things,  the  in- 
sistance  on  internal  evidence,  not  external,  cannot,  we 
say,  be  the  writer's,  for  they  are  above  him ;  and  while 
his  gifts  and  acquirements  are  such  as  to  make  him  report 
them,  they  are  not  such  as  to  enable  him  to  originate 
them.  The  great  evidential  line  of  this  gospel :  '  You 
are  always  talking  about  God,  and  about  your  founder 
Abraham,  the  father  of  God's  faithful  people  ;  here  is  a 
man  who  says  nothing  of  his  own  head,  who  tells  you  the 
truth,  as  he  has  learnt  it  of  God ;  if  you  were  really  of 
God  you  would  hear  the  words  of  God  !  if  you  were 
really  Abraham's  children  you  would  follow  the  truth  like 
Abraham  !' — this  simple  but  profound  line,  sending  Israel 
back  to  amend  its  conventional,  barren  notions  of  God,  of 
righteousness,  and  of  the  founders  of  its  religion,  leading  it 
to  explore  them  afresh,  to  sound  them  deeper,  to  gather 
from  them  a  new  revelation  and  a  new  life,  was,  we  say, 
at  once  too  simple  and  too  profound  for  the  author  of 


176  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


the  Fourth  Gospel  to  have  invented.  Our  endless  grati- 
tude is  due  to  him,  however,  for  having  caught  and 
preserved  so  much  of  it.  And  our  business  is  to  keep 
hold  of  the  clue  he  has  thus  given  us,  and  to  use  it  as 
profitably  as  possible. 

5. 

Truly  then,  some  one  will  exclaim,  we  may  say  with 
the  *  Imitation  :'  Magna  ars  est  scit'e  conversari  annjcsu  / 
And  so  it  is.  To  extract  from  his  reporters  the  true  Jesus 
entire,  is  even  impossible  ;  to  extract  him  in  considerable 
part  is  one  of  the  highest  conceivable  tasks  of  criticism. 
And  it  is  vain  to  use  that  favourite  argument  of  popular 
theology  that  man  could  never  have  been  left  by  Prov^i- 
dence  in  difficulty  and  obscurity  about  a  matter  of  so 
much  importance  to  him.  For  the  cardinal  rule  of  our 
present  inquiry  is  that  rule  of  Newton's  :  Hypotheses  non 
Jingo  ;  and  this  argument  of  popular  theology  rests  on  the 
eternal  hypothesis  of  a  magnified  and  non-natural  man  at 
the  head  of  mankind's  and  the  world's  affairs.  And  a 
further  answer  is,  that,  as  to  the  argument  itself,  even  if  we 
allowed  the  hypothesis,  yet  the  course  of  things,  so  far  as 
we  can  see,  is  not  so  ;  they  do  not  proceed  in  this  fashion. 
Because  a  man  has  frequently  to  make  sea-passages,  he 
is  not  gifted  with  an  immunity  from  sea-sickness  ;  because 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.         177 

a  thing  is  of  the  highest  interest  and  importance  to  know, 
it  is  ;/<?/,  therefore,  easy  to  know ;  on  the  contrary,  in 
general,  in  proportion  to  its  magnitude  it  is  difficult  and 
requires  time. 

But  the  right  commentary  on  the  sentence  of  the  Imi- 
iation  is  given  by  the  Imitation  itself  in  the  sentence 
following  :  *  Esto  humilis  et  pacifims^  et  erit  tecum  Jestis  /' 
What  men  could  take  at  the  hands  of  Jesus,  what  they 
could  use,  what  could  save  them,  he  made  as  clear  as 
light ;  and  Christians  have  never  been  able,  even  if  they 
would,  to  miss  seeing  it.  No,  never  ;  but  still  they  have 
super-added  to  it  a  vast  Aberglaiibe^  an  after  or  extra- 
belief  of  their  own ;  and  the  Aierglaube  has  pushed  on 
one  side,  for  very  many,  the  saving  doctrine  of  Jesus,  has 
hindered  attention  from  being  riveted  on  this  and  on  its 
line  of  growth  and  working,  has  nearly  effaced  it,  has 
developed  all  sorts  of  faults  contrary  to  it.  This  Aber- 
glaube  has  sprung  out  of  a  false  criticism  of  the  literary 
records  in  which  the  doctrine  is  conveyed ;  what  is 
called  '  orthodox  divinity  '  is,  in  fact,  an  immense  literary 
misapprehension.  Having  caused  the  saving  doctrines 
enshrined  in  these  records  to  be  neglected,  and  credited 
the  records  with  existing  for  the  sake  of  its  own  Aber- 
glaiibe,  this  blunder  now  threatens  to  cause  the  records 
themselves  to  be  neglected  by  all  those  (and  their  numbers 


178  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

are  fast  increasing)  whom  its  own  Aberglaiibe  fills  with 
impatience  and  aversion.  Therefore  it  is  needful  to  show 
the  line  of  gi-owth  of  this  Aberglatibe,  and  its  delusiveness ; 
to  show  anew,  and  with  more  detail  than  we  have  admitted 
hitherto,  the  line  of  growth  of  Jesus  Christ's  doctrine, 
and  the  far-reaching  sanctions,  the  inexhaustible  attrac- 
tiveness, the  grace  and  truth,  with  which  he  invested  it. 
But  the  doctrine  itself  is  essentially  simple  ;  and  what  is 
difficult, — the  literary  criticism  of  the  documents  con- 
taining the  doctrine, — is  not  the  doctrine. 

This  literary  criticism,  however,  is  extremely  difficult. 
It  calls  into  play  the  highest  requisites  for  the  study  of 
letters ; — great  and  wide  acquaintance  with  the  histor}^  of 
the  human  mind,  knowledge  of  the  manner  in  which  men 
have  thought,  of  their  way  of  using  words  and  of  what  they 
mean  by  them,  delicacy  of  perception  and  quick  tact,  and, 
besides  all  these,  a  favourable  moment  and  the  '  Zeit- 
Geist.'  And  yet  every  one  among  us  criticises  the 
Bible,  and  thinks  it  is  of  the  essence  of  the  Bible  that 
it  can  be  thus  criticised  with  success  !  And  the  Four 
Gospels,  the  part  of  the  Bible  to  which  this  sort  of 
criticism  is  most  applied  and  most  confidently,  are  just 
the  part  w^hich  for  literary  criticism  is  infinitely  the 
hardest,  however  simple  they  may  look,  and  however 
simple  the  saving  doctrine  they  contain  really  is.     For 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.         ijc) 

Prophets  and  Epistlers  speak  for  themselves;  but  in 
the  Four  Gospels  reporters  are  speaking  for  Jesus,  who 
is  far  above  them. 

Now,  we  all  know  what  the  literary  criticism  of  the 
mass  of  mankind  is.     To  be  worth  anything,  literary  and 
scientific  criticism  require,  both  of  them,  the  finest  heads 
and  the  most  sure  tact ;  and  they  require,  besides,  that  the 
world  and  the  world's  experience  shall  have  come  some 
considerable  way.    Now,  ever  since  this  last  condition  has 
been  fulfilled,  the  finest  heads  for  letters  and  science,  the 
surest  tact  for  these,  have  turned  themselves  in  general 
to  other  regions  of  work  than  criticism  of  the  Bible,  this 
region  being  occupied  already  in  such  force  of  numbers 
and  hands,  if  not  of  heads,  and  there  being   so   many 
annoyances  and  even  dangers  in  freely  approaching  it. 
As  our  Reformers  were  to  Shakspeare  and  Bacon  in  tact 
for  letters  and  science,  or  as  Luther,  even,  was  to  Goethe 
in  this  respect,  such  almost  has  on  the  whole  been,  since 
the  Renascence,  the  general  proportion  in  rate  of  power 
for  criticism  between  those  who  have  given  themselves  to 
secular  letters  and  science,  and  those  who  have  given 
themselves  to  interpreting  the  Bible,  and  who,  in  con- 
junction \vith  the  popular  interpretation  of  it  both  tra- 
ditional and  contemporary,  have  made  what  is  called 
*  orthodox  theology.'     It  is  as  if  some  simple  and  saving 

N  2 


i8o  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

doctrines,  essential  for  men  to  know,  were  enshrined  in 
Shakspeare's  Hamlet  or  Newton's  Principia  (though  the 
Gospels  are  really  a  far  more  complex  and  difficult  object 
of  criticism  than  either) ;  and  a  host  of  second-rate  critics, 
and  official  critics,  and  what  is  called  '  the  popular  mind ' 
as  well,  threw  themselves  upon  Hamlet  and  the  Principia 
with  the  notion  that  they  could  and  should  extract  from 
these  documents,  and  impose  on  us  for  our  belief,  not 
only  the  saving  doctrines  enshrined  there,  but  also  the 
right  literary  and  scientific  criticism  of  the  entire  docu- 
ments. A  pretty  mess  they  would  make  of  it !  and  just 
this  sort  of  mess  is  our  so-called  orthodox  theology.  And 
its  professors  are  nevertheless  bold,  over-weening, and  even 
abusive,  in  maintaining  their  criticism  against  all  ques- 
tioners ;  although  really,  if  one  thinks  seriously  of  it,  it 
was  a  kind  of  .impertinence  in  such  professors  to  attempt 
any  such  criticism  at  all. 

Happily,  the  faith  that  saves  is  attached  to  the 
saving  doctrines  in  the  Bible,  which  are  very  simple  ;  not 
to  its  literary  and  scientific  criticism,  which  is  very  hard. 
And  no  man  is  to  be  called  '  infidel '  for  his  bad  literary 
and  scientific  criticism  of  the  Bible ;  but  if  he  were,  how 
dreadful  would  the  state  of  our  orthodox  theologians  be  ! 
They  themselves  freely  fling  about  this  word  infidel  at  all 
those  who  reject  their  literary  and  scientific  criticism, 


THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  RECORD.         i8i 

which  turns  out  to  be  quite  false.  It  would  be  but  just 
to  mete  to  them  with  their  own  measure,  and  to  condemn 
them  by  their  own  rule ;  and,  when  they  air  their  unsound 
criticism  in  public,  to  cry  indignantly  :  The  Bishop  of 
So-and-so,  the  Dean  of  So-and-so,  and  other  infidel  lecturers 
of  the  present  day!  or:  That  rampant  infidel,  the  Arch- 
deacon of  So-and-so,  in  his  recejit  letter  on  the  Athanasian 
Creed!  or :  '  The  Rock^  '  The  Chu7-ch  Times ^  a7idthe  rest 
of  the  ififidel press  !  or :  The  torrent  of  i7ifidelity  which  pours 
a'ery  Sunday  from  our  pulpits  !  Just  would  this  be,  and 
by  no  means  inurbane ;  but  hardly,  perhaps.  Christian. 
Therefore  we  will  not  permit  ourselves  to  say  it ;  but  it  is 
only  kind  to  point  out,  in  passing,  to  these  loud  and  rash 
people  to  what  they  expose  themselves,  at  the  hands  of 
adversaries  less  scrupulous  than  we  are. 


i82  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   TESTIMONY   OF   JESUS   TO    HIMSELF. 

We  have  said, — and  it  cannot  be  repeated  too  often, — that 
what  is  called  orthodox  theology  is,  in  fact,  an  immense 
misunderstanding  of  the  Bible,  due  to  the  junction  of  a 
talent  for  abstruse  reasoning  with  much  literary  inex- 
perience. It  cannot  be  repeated  too  often  ;  because  our 
dogmatic  friends  seem  to  imagine  that  the  truth  of  their 
dogma  is  conceded  on  all  hands,  and  that  the  only 
objection  is  to  the  harsh  or  over-rigid  way  in  which  it  is 
put.  Dr.  Pusey  and  the  Church  Review  assume  that 
what  the  Athanasian  Creed,  for  instance,  does,  is  '  to 
take  up  the  admitted  facts  of  Christian  faith,  and  arrange 
them  sentence  after  sentence ; '  and  then  they  ask  us 
why  we  should  be  so  squeamish  about  '  letting  the  Prayer 
Book  contain  once,  at  least,  the  statement  that  Christian 
faith  is  necessary  to  salvation.'  Others  talk  of  the 
contest  going  on  between  '  definite  religion,'  '  religion  with 
the  sinew  and  bone  of  doctrine,'  and  '  indefinite  rehgion,* 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    183 

*  nerveless  religion,'  '  vague,   negative   and   cloudy  reli- 
gion;' and  Lord  Salisbury,  as  we  have  seen,  declares  that 

*  religion  is  no  more  to  be  severed  from  dogma  than  light 
from  the  sun.' 

To  be  sure,  to  make  this  maxim  of  Lord  Salisbury's  in- 
disputable, it  ought  to  run  :  '  Religion  is  no  more  to  be 
severed  from  the  truth  of  religion  than  light  from  the  sun.* 
And  dogma  and  the  truth  of  religion  are  not  exactly  syno- 
nyms ;  dogma  means,  not  necessarily  a  ti'ue  doctrine,  but 
merely  a  doctrine  or  system  of  doctrine  determined^  decreed^ 
and  received.  Lord  Salisbury,  however,  takes  it  as  in  this 
case  another  word  for  truth.,  and  so  do  the  other  speakers. 
And  they  accordingly  represent  their  opponents  as  either 
secret  enemies  of  the  truth  of  religion,  men  who  are,  as 
the  Rock  says  in  a  Biblical  figure  addressed  to  the  Dean 
of  Westminster,  '  the  degenerate  plant  of  a  strange  vine 
bringing  forth  the  grapes  of  Sodom  and  the  clusters  of 
Gomorrah;'  or,  at  best,  as  amiable,  soft-headed  people, 
afraid  of  clear  thought  and  plain  speech,  and  tequiring 
with  their  light  a  very  unnecessary  dose  of  sweetness. 

We,  however,  try  to  keep  our  love  of  sweetness  within 
reasonable  bounds ;  and  the  Rock  will  hardly  call  us 
a  Gomorrah  vine,  when  we  agree  to  say  heartily  after  it,  as 
we  do,  that  '  Christian  faith  is  necessary  to  salvation.'  But 
what  is  Christian  faith  ?     Is  it  the  '  admitted  facts  taken 


i84  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

up  and  arranged,  sentence  after  sentence,  in  the  Atha- 
nasian  Creed?'  Are  these  facts  admitted'^ — the  whole 
question  is  here.  So  far  from  these  facts  being  admittedy 
or  from  the  enumeration  of  them  being  the  enumeration 
oi  the  facts  of  the  Christian  faith  ^  we  say  that  they  are  de- 
ductions from  the  Bible  of  matters  which  are  not  the  real 
matters  of  Christian  faith  at  all ;  and  that,  moreover,  they 
are  false  deductions  from  the  Bible,  blunders  arising  from 
a  want  of  skill  and  experience  in  dealing  with  a  very 
complex  literary  problem. 

Therefore  we  can  honestly  tell  our  dogmatic  friends, 
that  we  agree  with  them  in  disliking  an  indefinite 
religion,  in  preferring  a  definite  one.  Our  quarrel  with 
them  is,  not  that  they  define  religion,  but  that  they 
define  it  so  abominably.  And  to  the  eloquent  and 
impetuous  Chancellor  of  Oxford,  who  cannot  away  with 
a  hazy  amiability  in  religious  matters,  and  brandishes 
before  us  his  dogma,  not  vague,  he  says,  but  precise : 
— *  Precise  enough,'  we  answer,  *  precisely  wrong  ! '  And 
having  thus,  we  hope,  put  ourselves  right  with  our 
adversaries  as  to  the  real  question  between  us  and 
them,  we  will  proceed  with  our  endeavour  to  free  the 
Bible, — by  sho'vving  that  it  is  not  science  but  litera- 
ture, by  following  it  continuously  and  by  interpreting  it 
naturally, — to  free  the  Bible  from  the  serious   dangers 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS  TO  HIMSELF.    185 

with  which  their  advocacy  threatens  it.  Because,  when  the 
Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester  talk  of  'doing 
something  for  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son,'  they  are 
doing  nothing,  we  say,  for  the  Bible,  they  are  endanger- 
ing it.  For  their  notions  about  the  Godhead  of  the 
Eternal  Son,  and  what  it  is,  cannot  possibly  stand ;  and 
yet  these  notions  they  have  drawn,  they  tell  us,  from  the 
Bible,  they  impute  them  to  the  Bible.  But  they  have 
drawn  them  wrongly,  and  the  Bible  is  to  be  made  an- 
swerable for  no  such  doctrine.  And  we  have  now  come 
to  that  point  where  we  may  see,  clearer  than  we  were  in  a 
position  to  see  before,  what  is  rightly  to  be  drawn  from 
the  Bible  on  this  matter,  and  what  the  doctrine  of  Jesus 
himself  about  his  own  Godhead  really  is. 


Following  the  Bible  continuously  and  interpreting  it 
naturally,  we  saw  the  people  of  '  the  Eternal  that  loveth 
righteousness,'  and  that  '  blesseth  the  man  that  putteth  his 
trust  in  Him,'  we  saw  Israel,  confounded  and  perplexed 
by  the  misfortunes  of  God's  people  and  the  success  of 
the  unrighteous  world,  construct  a  vast  Aberglatibe,  an 
after  or  extra-belief,  according  to  which  there  should 
come  about,  in  no  distant  future,  a  grand  and  wonderful 
change.     God  should  send  his  Messiah,  judge  the  worlds 


i86  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


punish  the  wicked,  and  restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel.  For 
Israel's  original  revelation  and  intuition  had  been  :  The 
Eternal  loveth  righteousness ;  to  him  that  ordereth  his  con- 
versation right  shall  be  shoiun  the  salvation  of  God.  And 
the  natural  corollary  from  this  was  :  As  the  whirlwind 
passeth,  so  is  the  wicked  no  more ;  hut  the  righteous  is 
an  everlasting  foundation. 

Both  the  revelation  and  the  corollary  from  it  were 
true ;  but  the  virtue  of  both,  for  Israel,  turned  upon 
knowing  what  righteousness  and  righteous  meant.  And 
this  indispensable  intuition  Israel  is  always  represented 
as  having  once  had,  and  with  time  in  gi"eat  measure  lost. 
*■  Stand  ye  in  the  ways  and  see,'  says  Jeremiah,  '■  and  ask 
for  the  old  paths  ^  where  is  the  good  way,  and  walk  therein, 
and  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls.'  The  prophets  may 
be  seen  trying  to  re-awaken  in  Israel  this  intuition,  by 
inculcating  inwardness,  humbleness,  sincerity.  But  the 
mass  of  people  naturally  inclined  to  place  righteousness 
rather  in  something  mechanically  to  be  given  or  done, — 
in  being  endowed  with  the  character  of  God's  chosen 
people,  or  in  punctually  observing  a  law  full  of  minute 
observances,  And  the  promises  to  righteousness  they  in 
like  manner  construed  as  promises  of  things  material : 
a  mighty  Jewish  kingdom,  God's  people  reigning,  the 
heathen  licking  the  dust. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    187 


This  material  conception  of  the  promises  to  righteous- 
ness fell  in  with  the  mechanical  conception  of  righteous- 
ness itself,  and  each  heightened  the  hurtfulness  of  the 
other.  Between  them  both,  a  type  of  soul  more  and  more 
hard,  impervious,  and  impracticable,  was  formed  in 
the  Jewish  people ;  and  the  intuition,  in  which  their 
greatness  began,  died  out  more  and  more.  There 
still  remained  of  it  so  much  as  this  :  that  of  all  the 
nations  of  the  world  they  were  the  only  one  that  felt 
the  all-importance  of  righteousness,  and  the  eternity  of 
the  promises  made  to  it  But  what  righteousness  really 
was  they  knew  not ;  and  their  situation,  when  Jesus  Christ 
came,  is  admirably  summed  up  in  these  two  verses  of 
prophecy,  which  everyone  who  wishes  for  a  clear  sense  of 
the  Jews'  relations  with  Christ  would  do  well  to  write  as  a 
reminder  on  the  blank  page  between  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New  : — 

'  Forasmuch  as  this  people  draw  near  me  with  their 
mouthy  a?id  with  their  lips  do  honour  me,  hut  have  removed 
their  heart  far  from  me,  and  their  fear  toiuards  me  is  taught 
by  the  precept  of  men; 

'  Therefore,  behold,  I  will  proceed  to  do  a  marvellous  work 
among  this  people,  even  a  ma?'vcllous  7uork  and  a  wonder; 
for  the  wisdom  of  their  wise  7nen  shall  perish,  and  the  under- 
standing of  their  prudent  men  shall  he  hid.'' 


1 88  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Meanwhile,  the  Jews  were  full  of  their  Aberglanbe^  their 
added  or  extra-belief  in  a  Messianic  advent,  a  great  judg- 
ment, a  world-wide  reign  of  the  saints  ;  and  it  is  well  to 
have  distinctly  before  us  the  main  texts  which  they  had 
gathered  from  the  Old  Testament  in  support  of  this 
belief,  and  which  were  in  everybody's  mind  and  month. 
They  are  all  given  us  by  the  New  Testament.  Moses  had 
said  :  *  The  Eternal  thy  God  will  raise  up  unto  thee  a 
Prophet  from  the  midst  of  thee,  of  thy  brethren,  like  unto 
me  ;  unto  him  shall  ye  hearken.'  In  the  Psalms  it  was 
written  :  '  The  Eternal  hath  sworn  a  faithful  oath  unto 
David  :  Of  the  fruit  of  thy  body  will  I  set  upon  thy  seat; 
thy  seed  will  I  stab  lis  h  for  ever,  and  set  up  thy  throne  from 
onegeneration  to  another^  Isaiah  had  said:  'There  shall 
come  forth  a  Rod  out  of  the  stem  of  Jesse  and  a  Branch 
shall  grow  out  of  his  roots  ;  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Eternal 
shall  rest  upon  him,  and  he  shall  smite  the  earth  with  the 
breath  of  his  mouth,  and  with  the  breath  of  his  lips  shall 
he  slay  the  wicked.'  Finally,  Malachi,  the  last  prophet,  had 
announced  from  God  :  '  Behold,  I  will  send  you  Elijah 
the  prophet  before  the  coming  of  the  great  and  dreadful 
day  of  the  Eternal.' 

These  may  stand,  perhaps,  as  four  fundamental  texts 
forming  the  ground  for  popular  Jewish  Aberglaube  as  it 
develooed  itself ;  and  it  will  be  seen  of  what  large  and 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    189 

loose  construction  they  admit.  But  the  ground-plan  thus 
given  was  filled  out  from  later  and  inferior  scriptures, 
full  of  the  spirit  of  the  time,  grandiose,  but  turbid  and 
phantasmagoric,  such  as  the  Book  of  Enoch  and  the 
Book  of  Daniel.  The  Book  of  Daniel  is  in  our  Bibles  ; 
we  can  all  verify  there  the  elements  which  constituted, 
when  Christ  came,  the  popular  religious  hope  and 
belief  of  the  Jews.  It  may  be  hoped  that  we  our- 
selves, most  of  us,  read  other  parts  of  the  Bible  far 
more  than  the  Book  of  Daniel ;  but  we  know  how,  in 
general,  those  who  use  the  Bible  most  unintelligently 
have  a  peculiar  fondness  for  the  apocalyptic  and 
phantasmagoric  parts  of  it.  The  Book  of  Daniel  gave 
form  and  body  to  the  Prophet  of  Moses,  the  seed  of 
David  of  the  Psalms,  the  great  and  terrible  day  of 
Malachi;  it  enabled  the  popular  imagination  to  see  and 
figure  them.  '  A  time  of  trouble  such  as  never  was  since 
there  was  a  nation  to  that  time  !  The  Ancient  of 
days  did  sit,  whose  garment  was  white  as  snow  and 
the  hair  of  his  head  like  the  pure  wool ;  his  throne 
was  like  the  fiery  flame;  the  judgment  was  set  and 
the  books  were  opened.  And  behold,  one  like  the 
Son  of  Man  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  came 
to  the  Ancient  of  days,  and  there  was  given  him 
dominion  and  glory,  that  all  people,  nations,  and  Ian- 


I90  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

guages  should  serve  him ;  his  dominion  is  an  ever- 
lasting dominion  which  shall  not  pass  away.  And 
judgment  was  given  to  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  and 
the  time  came  that  the  saints  possessed  the  kingdom. 
At  that  time  the  people  of  God  shall  be  delivered,  every 
one  that  shall  be  found  written  in  the  book ;  and  many 
of  them  that  sleep  in  dust  shall  awake,  some  to  ever- 
lasting Hfe,  and  some  to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt.* 

Other  figures  which  laid  hold  on  men's  memories  the 
Book  of  Enoch  supplied.  It  told  how,  in  the  great  visi- 
tation: 'They  shall  rise  up  to  destroy  one  another, 
neither  shall  a  man  acknowledge  his  friend  and  his 
brother,  nor  the  son  his  father  and  his  mother ; '  how : 
'  Ye  shall  enter  into  the  holes  of  the  earth  and  into  the 
clefts  of  the  rocks ; '  and  how,  finally,  the  proud  rulers  of 
the  world  '  shall  see  the  Son  of  Man  sitting  on  the  throne 
of  his  glory.'  The  Book  of  Enoch  described  this  Son  of 
Man,  also,  as  '  The  Son  of  Man,  living  with  the  Lord  of 
Spirits,'  '  The  Elect  One,  whom  the  Lord  of  Spirits  hath 
gifted  and  glorified.'  Both  books  gave  him  the  name  of 
'  Son  of  God '  and  of  '  Messiah.' 

It  was  of  all  this  that  the  heart  of  the  Jews  was  full 
when  Christ  came ;  it  was  on  this  that  their  thoughts  fed 
and  their  hopes  brooded.  The  old  words,  God,  the 
Eternal,  the  Father,  the  Redeemer,  were  perpetually  in 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO   HIMSELF.    191 

their  mouths ;  but  in  this  connexion.  The  goal  of  their 
hves  was  still,  as  of  old,  '  the  salvation  of  God ; '  but  this 
was  what  they  understood  the  salvation  of  God  to  be. 
They  had  lost  the  intuition,  and  they  had  thrown  them- 
selves, heart  and  soul,  upon  an  extra-belief,  or  Aber- 
glaube. 

3- 

Now,  if  we  describe  the  work  of  Christ  by  a  short 
expression  which  may  give  the  clearest  view  of  it,  we 
shall  describe  it  thus: — that  he  came  to  restore  the  in- 
tuition. He  came,  it  is  true,  to  save,  and  to  give  eternal 
life ;  but  the  way  in  which  he  did  this  was  by  restoring 
the  intuition. 

This  we  have  already  touched  upon  in  our  third 
chapter,  for  we  there  passed  in  brief  review  the  teaching 
of  Jesus.  But  there  the  objection  met  us,  that  what  at- 
tested Christ  was  miracles,  and  the  preternatural  fulfil- 
ment in  him  of  certain  minute  predictions  made  about 
him  long  before  j  and  that  such  is  the  teaching  of  Christ 
himself  and  of  the  Bible.  We  had  to  pause  and  deal 
with  this  objection;  and  now,  as  it  disperses,  we  come 
in  full  view  of  our  old  point  again, — that  what  did  attest 
Christ  was  his  restoration  of  the  intuition.  He  found 
Israel  all  astray,  with  an  endless  talk  about  God,  the  law, 
righteousness,   the  kingdom,   everlasting  life, — and    no 


192  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

real  hold  upon  any  one  of  them.  Israel's  old,  sure  proof 
of  being  in  the  right  way, — the  sanction  of  joy  and  peace, 
— was  plainly  wanting ;  and  this  was  a  test  which  anybody 
could  at  once  apply.  'O  Eternal,  blessed  is  the  man 
that  putteth  his  trust  in  thee,'  was  a  corner-stone  of 
Israel's  religion.  Now,  the  Jewish  people,  however  they 
might  talk  about  putting  their  trust  in  the  Eternal,  were 
evidently,  as  they  stood  there  before  Jesus,  not  blessed 
at  all ;  and  they  knew  it  themselves  as  well  as  he  did. 
*  Great  peace  have  they  who  love  thy  law,'  was  another 
corner-stone.  But  the  Jewish  people  had  at  that  time 
in  its  soul  as  little  peace  as  itliad  joy  and  blessedness; 
it  was  seething  with  inward  unrest,  irritation,  and  trouble. 
Yet  the  way  of  the  Eternal  was  most  indubitably  a  way 
of  peace  and  joy;  so,  if  Israel  felt  no  peace  and  no  joy, 
Israel  could  not  be  walking  in  the  way  of  the  Eternal. 
"  Here  we  have  the  firm  unchanging  ground  on  which  the 
operations  of  Jesus  both  began,  and  always  proceeded. 

And  it  is  to  be  observed  that  Jesus  by  no  means  gave 
a  new,  more  precise,  scientific  definition  of  God,  but 
took  up  this  term  just  as  Israel  used  it,  to  stand  for  the 
Eternal  that  loveth  right eoicsness.  If  therefore  this  term 
was,  in  Israel's  use  of  it,  not  a  temi  of  science,  but,  as  we 
say,  a  temi  of  common  speech,  of  poetry  and  eloquence, 
■thrown  out  at  a  vast  object  of  consciousness  not  fully 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS  TO  HIMSELF.    193 

covered  by  it,  so  it  was  in  Christ's  use  of  it  also.  And  if 
the  substratum  of  scientific  affirmation  in  the  term  was, 
with  Israel,  not  the  affirmation  of  '  a  great  Personal  First 
Cause,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  uni- 
verse,' but  the  affirmation  of  '  an  enduring  Power,  not 
ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteousness,'  so  it  remained 
with  Christ  likewise.  He  set  going  a  great  process  of 
searching  and  sifting ;  but  this  process  had  for  its  direct 
•object  the  idea  of  righteousness,  and  only  touched  the 
idea  of  God  through  this,  ^nd  not  independently  of  this 
and  immediately.  If  the  idea  of  righteousness  was 
changed,  this  implied,  undoubtedly,  a  corresponding 
change  in  the  idea  of  the  Power  that  makes  for  right- 
eousness ;  but  in  this  manner  only,  and  to  this  extent, 
does  the  teaching  of  Jesus  re-define  the  idea  of  God. 

But  search  and  sift  and  renew  the  idea  of  righteous- 
ness Jesus  did.  And  though  the  work  of  Jesus,  like  the 
name  of  God,  calls  up  in  the  believer  a  multitude  of 
emotions  and  associations  far  more  than  any  brief  defi- 
nition can  cover,  yet,  remembering  Jeremy  Taylor's 
advice  to  avoid  exhortations  to  get  Christ,  to  be  in  Christ, 
and  to  seek  some  more  distinct  and  practical  way  of 
speaking  of  him,  we  shall  not  do  ill,  perhaps,  if  we  sum- 1 
marise  to  our  own  minds  his  work  by  saying,  that  he  "^ 
restored  the  intuition  of  God  through  transforming  the 

o 


194  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


idea  of  righteousness  ;  and  that,  to  do  this,  he  brought  a 
method,  and  he  brought  a  secret.  And  of  those  two  great 
words  which  fill  such  a  place  in  his  gospel,  repentance 
and  peace, — as  we  see  that  his  Apostles,  when  they 
preached  his  gospel,  preached  '■  Repentance  unto  life  '  and 
*P<?^f^  through  Jesus  Christ,'— of  these  two  great  words, 
one,  repentance,  attaches  itself,  we  shall  find,  to  his  method, 
and  the  other,  peace,  to  his  secret. 

There  was  no  question  between  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
Jews  as  to  the  object  to  aim  at.  'If  thou  wouldst  enter 
into  life,  keep  the  commandments,'  said  Jesus.  And  Israel, 
too,  on  his  part,  said :  '  He  that  keepeth  the  com- 
mandments keepeth  his  own  soul.'  But  what  com- 
mandments ?  The  commandments  of  God  ;  about  this, 
too,  there  was  no  question.  But :  '  Leaving  the  com- 
mandment of  God,  ye  hold  the  tradition  of  men ;  ye 
make  the  commandment  of  God  of  none  effect  by 
yom  tradition ','  said  Jesus.  Therefore  the  command- 
ments which  Israel  followed  were  ;/^/ those  commandments 
of  God  by  which  a  man  keeps  his  own  soul,  enters  into 
life.  And  the  practical  proof  of  this  was,  that  Israel 
stood  before  the  eyes  of  the  world  manifestly  neither 
joyful,  nor  blessed,  nor  at  peace;  yet  these  characters  of 
joy,  bUss,  and  peace,  the  following  of  the  real  command- 
ments was  confessed  to  give.     So  a  rule,  or  method,  was 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    195 

wanted,  by  which  to  determine  what  the  real  command- 
ments were. 

And  Jesus  gave  one :  'The  things  that  come  from  within 
a  man's  hearty  they  it  is  which  defile  him  !' 

AVe  have  seen  what  an  immense  matter  conduct  is  ;— 
that  it  is  three-fourths  of  life.  We  have  seen  how  plain 
and  simple  a  matter  it  is,  so  far  as  knowledge  is  concerned. 
We  have  seen  how,  moreover,  philosophers  are  for  refer- 
ring all  conduct  to  one  or  other  of  man's  two  elementary 
instincts, — the  instinct  of  self-preservation  and  the  repro- 
ductive instinct ;  it  is  the  suggestions  of  one  or  other  of 
these  instincts,  they  say,  which  call  forth  all  cases  in  which 
there  is  scope  for  exercising  morality,  or  conduct.  And 
this  does,  we  saw,  cover  the  facts  well  enough.  For  we 
can  run  up  nearly  all  faults  of  conduct  into  two  classes, — 
faults  of  temper  and  faults  of  sensuality ;  to  be  referred, 
all  of  them,  to  one  or  other  of  these  two  instincts. 
Now,  Jesus  not  only  says  that  things  coming  from 
within  a  man's  heart  defile  him,  he  adds  expressly  what 
these  things  that,  coming  from  ^vithin  a  man,  defile  him, 
are.  And  what  he  enumerates  are  the  following :  '  Evil 
thoughts,  fornications,  stealings,  murders,  adulteries,  greed, 
vices,  fraud,  dissoluteness,  envy,  evil-speaking,  pride, 
folly.'  These  fall  into  two  groups :  one,  of  faults  of  self- 
assertion,  graspingness  and  violence,  all  of  which  we  may 


196  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

call  faults  of  temper ;  and  the  other,  of  foults  of  sensualiiy. 
And  the  two  groups,  between  them,  do  for  practical  pur- 
poses cover  all  the  range  of  faults  proceeding  from  these 
two  sources,  and  therefore  all  the  range  of  conduct.  So 
the  motions  or  impulses  to  faults  of  conduct  were  what 
Jesus  said  the  real  commandments  are  concerned  with. 
And  it  was  plain  what  such  faults  are ;  but,  to  make  assur- 
ance more  sure,  he  went  further  and  said  what  they  are. 
But  no  outward  observances  were  conduct^  were  that 
keeping  of  the  commandments  which  was  the  keeping 
of  a  man's  own  soul  and  made  him  enter  into  life.  To 
have  the  thoughts  in  order  as  to  certain  matters,  was 
conduct. 

This  was  the  *  method '  of  Jesus  :  setting  up  a  great  un- 
ceasing inward  movement  of  attention  and  verification  in 
matters  which  a,re  three-fourths  of  human  life,  where  to 
see  true  and  to  verify  is  not  difficult,  the  difficult  thing 
is  to  care  and  to  attend.  And  the  inducement  to  attend 
was,  because  joy  and  peace,  missed  on  every  other  line, 
were  to  be  reached  on  this. 

'■  Keep  judgment  and  do  righteousness  ! '  had  not  been 
guidance  enough.  The  Jews  found  themselves  taking 
*  meats  and  drinks  and  divers  washings'  for  judgment; 
taking  for  righteousness  *  gifts  and  sacrifices  which  cannot 
perfect  the  worshipper  as  to  his  co?iscience'  (here  is  the 
word  of  Jesus !) ;  tithing  mint,  anise  and  cummin  ;  say- 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS  TO  HIMSELF.    197 

ing  to  their  parents  :  //  is  Corban! — evil-disposed,  and  not 
at  all  blessed.  But:  'As  to  all  wherein  what  men  com- 
monly call  conduct  is  exercised, — eating,  drinking,  ease, 
pleasure,  money,  the  intercourse  of  the  sexes,  the  giving 
full  swing  to  one's  tempers  and  instincts, — as  to  all  this, 
watch  attentively  what  passes  within  you,  that  you  may 
obey  the  voice  of  conscience  !  so  you  will  keep  God's 
commandment  and  be  blessed ; ' —  this  is  the  new  and 
much  more  exact  guidance.  '  The  things  that  come  from 
within  a  man's  hea7't,  they  defile  him  !  cleanse  the  inside 
of  the  cup  !  beware  of  the  leaven  of  the  Pharisees, 
which  is  insincerity !  judge  not  after  the  appearance,  but 
judge  righteous  judgment ! ' — this,  we  say,  is  the  'method' 
of  Jesus.  To  it  belongs  his  use  of  that  important  word 
which  in  the  Greek  is  '  metanoia.'  We  translate  it  repen 
tance,  a  mourning  and  lamenting  over  one's  sins;  and 
we  translate  it  wrong.  Of  '  metanoia,'  according  to  the 
meaning  of  Jesus,  the  lamenting  one's  sins  was  a  small 
part ;  the  main  part  was  something  far  more  active  and 
fruitful,  the  setting  up  an  immense  new  inivard  inovement 
for  obtaining  one's  rule  of  life.  And  '  metanoia,'  accord- 
ingly, is :  a  change  of  the  inner  man. 

Mention  and  recommendation  of  this  inwardness  there 
often  was,  we  know,  in  prophet  or  psalmist ;  but  to  make 
mention  of  it  was  one  thing,  to  erect  it  into  a  positive 


198  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

method  was  another.  Christianity  has  made  it  so 
famihar,  that  to  give  any  freshness  to  one's  words  about 
it  is  now  not  easy ;  but  to  its  first  recipients  it  was  abun- 
dantly fi-esh  and  novel.  It  was  the  introduction,  in 
morals  and  religion,  of  the  famous  know  thyself  of  the 
Greeks ;  and  this  among  a  people  deeply  serious,  but 
also  wedded  to  moral  and  religious  routine,  and  singularly 
devoid  of  flexibility  and  play  of  mind.  For  them  it 
was  a  revolution.  Of  course  the  hard  thing  is  not  to  say, 
Cleaiise  the  inside  of  the  cup,  but  to  make  people  do  it  ; 
in  morals  and  religion,  the  man  who  is  founded  upo?i 
rock  is  always,  as  Jesus  said,  the  man  who  does,  never 
the  man  who  only  hears.  To  say,  Look  within,  wa? 
therefore  not  everything ;  yet  we  none  of  us,  probably, 
enough  feel  the  power  which  at  first  resided  in  the  mere 
saying  of  it  as  Jesus  said  it.  And  this  is  because  his 
words  have  become  so  trite  to  us,  that  we  fail  to  see  how 
powerfully  they  were  all  adapted  to  call  forth  the  new 
habit  of  inwardness  ;  and  if  we  want  to  see  this,  we  must 
for  a  time  either  re-translate  his  words  for  ourselves,  or 
paraphrase  them.  And  not  only  the  words  he  employed 
but  also  the  words  he  excited;  the  words  which  the  effect 
produced  by  him  made  men  use  about  him.  Just  as  it 
is  well  to  substitute  Eteriial  for  Lord,  and  the  good 
news  for  the  gospel,  so  we  must  put  new  words   in  the 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO   HIMSELF.    199. 

place  of  the  now  hackneyed  repmtance,  truth,  grace,  spirit , 
if  we  wish  at  all  to  know  how  these  words  worked 
originally.  *Metanoia'  we  have  seen,  is  a  change  of 
the  inner  man  :  repentance  imto  life  was  a  life-giving 
cJiange  of  the  inner  man.  '  Aletheia '  is  not  so  well 
rendered  truth,  which  is  often  speculative  only,  as  it  is 
reality ;  *  charis  '  is  the  boon  of  happiness.''-  Instead,  then, 
of,  '  Grace  and  truth  came  through  Jesus  Christ,'  let 
us  say:  'Happiness  and  reality  came  through  Jesus 
Christ  j '  instead  of,  '  To  know  the  grace  of  God  in  truth,' 
*  To  know  the  happiness  of  God  in  reality.'  Even  though 
the  new  rendering  is  not  so  literally  correct  as  the  old,  not 
permanently  to  be  adopted,  it  will  be  of  use  to  us  for  a 
while  to  show  us  how  the  words  worked. 

Above  all  is  this  true  in  regard  to  the  word  spirit, 
made  so  mechanical  by  popular  religion,  that  it  has 
come  to  mean  a  person  without  a  body,  which  is  the 
child's  definition  of  a  ghost.  This  word,  specially 
designed  by  Jesus  to  serve  in  restoring  the  intuition 
and  in  bringing  Israel's  religion  face  to  face  with 
Israel's  inward  consciousness,  is  rather  i?iflucnce\  'Ex- 
cept a  man  be  born  of  cleansing  and  of  a  new  influe?ice, 
he   cannot   see  the  kingdom  of  God.'     Instead  of  pro- 

'  Professor  F.  Newman  has  truly  remarked  that  this  rendering  is 
not  closely  accurate.  But  see  what  I  have  said  in  the  next  sentence 
but  one.  The  most  literal  rendering  of  a  word  such  as  charis  is  not, 
in  the  present  case,  what  we  want. 


200  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

claiming  what  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester  calls  'the  blessed 
trath  that  the  God  of  the  universe  is  a  Person/ 
Jesus  uttered  a  warning  for  all  time  against  this  un- 
profitable jargon  when  he  said  :  '  God  is  an  hifitieiice,  and 
those  who  would  serve  him  must  serve  him  not  by 
any  form  of  words  or  rites,  but  by  inward  motion  and 
in  reality  ! '  No  rendering  can  too  strongly  bring  out 
the  original  bent  to  inwardness  and  intuition  in  lan- 
guage of  this  kind,  which  has  now  become  almost  formal 
to  us. 

Just  the  same  bent  appears  in  Christ's  taking,  as  the 
rule  for  a  man's  action  in  regard  to  another's  conduct, 
simply  and  solely  the  effect  on  the  actor's  own  character. 
This  is  what  is  so  striking  in  the  story  of  the  woman 
taken  in  adultery  :  *  Let  him  that  is  without  fault  cast 
the  first  stone !  and  they  were  all  convicted  by  their  con- 
science? And  who  is  without  fault,  and  where  is  the 
judge  whom  the  conviction  of  conscience  might  not  thus 
paralyse  ?  Punishment,  then,  is  impossible ;  and,  with 
punishment,  government  and  society  ?  But  punishment, 
government,  and  society,  are  all  of  them  after-inven- 
tions ;  creations  of  man,  and  unintuitive.  Jesus  re- 
garded simply  what  was  primary, — the  individual  and 
the  intuition.  And  in  truth  if  the  individual  and  the 
intuition  are  once  reached,  the  after-inventions  may  be 
left   to  take  care  of  themselves ;  and  if  conscience  ever 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS  TO  HIMSELF.    201 


became  enough  of  a  power,  there  would  be  no  offenders 
to  punish.  This  is  the  true  line  of  religion  ;  it  was  the 
line  of  Jesus.  To  work  the  renovation  needed,  he 
concentrated  his  efforts  upon  a  method  of  i7itvard?usSy. 


of  taking  counsel  of  cofiscience. 


4. 
But  for  this  world  of  busy  inward  movement  created 
by  the  method  of  Jesus,  a  rule  of  action  was  wanted  ;  and 
this  rule  was  found  in  his  secret.  It  was  the  same  of  which 
the  Apostle  Paul  afterwards  possessed  himself  with  such 
energy,  and  called  '  the  word  of  the  cross,'  ^  or,  necrosis, 
*  dying.'  The  rule  of  action  St.  Paul  gave  was  :  '  Always 
bearing  about  in  the  body  the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus, 
that  the  life  also  of  Jesus  may  be  made  manifest 
in  our  body  !'  In  the  popular  theurgy,  these  words  are 
commonly  referred  to  what  is  called  *  pleading  the  blood 
of  the  covenant,' — relying  on  the  death  and  merits  of 
Christ,  in  pursuance  of  the  contract  originally  passed  in 
the  Council  of  the  Trinity,  to  satisfy  God's  wrath  against 
sinners  and  to  redeem  us.  But  they  do  really  refer  to 
words  of  Jesus,  often  and  often  repeated,  and  of  which 
the  following  may  very  well  stand  as  pre-eminently  re- 
presentative :  '  He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and 
he  that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it  wita 

'  'O  A070S  b  Tov  aravpou. — I  Cor.,  i,  18. 


202  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

life  eternal.  Whosoever  would  come  after  vie^  let  him 
renounce  himself^  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  and  follow 
me.^ 

These  words,  or  words  like  them,  were  repeated  again 
and  again,  so  that  no  reporter  could  miss  them.  No 
reporter  did  miss  them.  We  find  them,  as  we  find  the 
*  method '  of  conscience,  in  all  the  four  Gospels,  Per- 
haps there  is  no  maxim  of  Jesus  that  has  such  a 
combined  stress  of  evidence  for  it,  and  may  be  taken 
as  so  eminently  his.  And  no  wonder ;  for  the  maxim 
contains  his  secret,  the  secret  by  which,  emphatically, 
his  gospel  '  brought  life  and  immortaUty  to  light.'  His 
^method'  directed  the  disciple's  eye  inward  and  set 
liis  consciousness  to  work ;  and  the  first  thing  his  con- 
sciousness told  him  was,  that  he  had  two  selves 
pulling  him  different  ways.  Till  we  attend,  till  the 
method  is  set  at  work,  it  seems  as  if  '  the  wishes  of  the 
flesh  and  of  the  current  thoughts,'  ^  were  to  be  followed  as 
a  matter  of  course ;  as  if  an  impulse  to  do  a  thing  means 
that  we  should  do  it.  But  when  we  attend,  we  find  that 
an  impulse  to  do  a  thing  is  really  in  itself  no  reason 
at  all  why  we  should  do  it ;  because  impulses  proceed 
from  two  sources,  quite  different,  and  of  quite  different 
degrees  of  authority.  St.  Paul  contrasts  them  as  the  in- 
ward man,  and  the  man  in  our  members  \  the  mind  of  the 

*  Td  OeA-ftixaTa  r^s  aapKhs  Koi  ruu  Siavoiwv. — Eph.,  ii,  3. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO   HIMSELF.    203 

flesh,  and  the  spiritual  mind.  Jesus  contrasts  them  as  Ufe^ 
properly  so  named,  and  life  in  this  world}  And  the 
moment  we  seriously  attend  to  conscience,  to  the  sug- 
gestions which  concern  practice  and  conduct,  we  can  see 
plainly  enough  from  which  source  a  suggestion  comes, 
and  that  the  suggestions  from  one  source  are  to  over- 
rule those  from  the  other. 

But  this  is  a  negative  state  of  things,  a  reign  of  check 
and  constraint,  a  reign,  merely,  of  morality.  Jesus 
changed  it  into  what  was  positive  and  attractive,  lighted 
it  up,  made  it  religion,  by  the  idea  of  two  lives.  One  of 
them  life  properly  so  called,  full  of  light,  endurance, 
felicity,  in  connexion  with  the  higher  and  permanent  self; 
and  the  other  of  them  life  improperly  so  called,  in 
connexion  with  the  lower  and  transient  self  The  first 
kind  of  life  was  already  a  cherished  ideal  with  Israel 
('  Thou  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life ! ')  ;  and  a  man 
might  be  placed  in  it,  Jesus  said,  by  dying  to  the  second. 
For  it  is  to  be  noted  that  our  common  expression,  '  dejiy 
himself,'  is  an  inadequate  and  misleading  version  of  the 
words  used  by  Jesus.  To  deny  one's  self  is  commonly 
understood  to  mean  that  one  refuses  one's  self  something ; 

*  The  strict  grammatical  and  logical  connexion  of  the  words  eV  tQ 
K6(TiJ.(f>  rovTCfi  is  with  6  fiicruv,  but  the  sense  and  effect  is  as  given 
above. 


204  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

but  what  Jesus  says  is  :  '  Let  a  man  disown  himself,  re- 
nounce himself,  die  as  regards  his  old  self,  and  so  live.' 
Himself^  the  old  ma7i,  the  life  in  this  world,  meant  following 
those  '  wishes  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  current  thoughts  ' 
which  Jesus  had,  by  his  method,  already  put  his  disciples 
in  the  way  of  sifting  and  scrutinising,  and  of  trying  by  the 
standard  of  conformity  to  conscience. 

Thus,  after  putting  him  by  his  method  in  the  way  to 
find  what  doing  righteousness  was,  by  his  secret  Jesus 
put  the  disciple  in  the  way  of  doi7ig  it.  For  the 
breaking  the  sway  of  what  is  commonly  called  OJie's 
self,  ceasing  our  concern  with  it  and  leaving  it  to  perish, 
is  not,  he  said,  being  thwarted  or  crossed,  but  living. 
And  the  proof  of  this  is  that  it  has  the  characters  of 
life  in  the  highest  degree,  —  the  sense  of  going  right, 
hitting  the  mark,  succeeding'  That  is,  it  has  the  cha- 
racters of  happiness ;  and  happiness  is,  for  Israel,  the 
same  thing  as  having  the  Eternal  with  us,  seeing  the  sal- 
vation of  God.  '  The  tree,'  as  Jesus  was  always  saying, 
'  is  known  by  lis  frnits ' ;  Jesus,  then,  was  to  be  received  by 
Israel  as  sent  from  God,  because  the  secret  of  Jesus  leads 
to  the  salvation  of  God,  which  is  what  Israel  most  de- 
sired. The  word  of  the  cross,  in  short,  turned  out  to  be 
at  the  same  time  the   word  of  the  kingdom.^     And  to 

'  'O  A(57os  TTjs  iSaff-iAetay. — Matth.,  xiii,  19. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO   HIMSELF.    205 

this  experimental  sanction  of  his  secret,  this  sense  it 
gives  of  having  the  Eternal  on  our  side  and  approving  us, 
Jesus  appealed  when  he  said  of  himself :  '  T/iefrfore  doth 
my  Father  love  me,  because  I  lay  down  my  life,  that  I 
may  take  it  again.'  This,  again,  in  our  popular  theurgy, 
is  materialised  into  the  First  Person  of  the  Trinity 
approving  the  Second,  because  he  stands  to  the  contract 
already  in  the  Council  of  the  Trinity  passed.  But  what 
it  really  means  is,  that  the  joy  of  Jesus,  of  this  '  Son 
of  peace,'  the  'joy'  he  was  so  desirous  that  his  disciples 
should  find  'fulfilled  in  themselves,'  was  due  to  his 
having  himself  followed  his  own  secret.  And  the  great 
counterpart  to  :  A  life-giving  change  of  the  in?ie?'  man, — 
the  promise  :  Peace  through  Jesus  Chi'ist  I — is  peace 
through  this  secret  of  his. 

Now,  the  value  of  this  rule  that  one  should  die  to  one's 
apparent  self,  live  to  one's  real  self,  depends  upon 
whether  it  is  true.  And  true  it  certainly  is ; — a  profound 
truth  of  what  our  scientific  friends,  who  have  a  systematic 
philosophy  and  a  nomenclature  to  match,  and  who  talk  of 
Egois77i  and  Altruism,  would  call,  perhaps,  psycho-physi- 
ology. And  we  may  trace  men's  experience  affirming  and 
confirming  it,  from  a  very  plain  and  level  account  of  it 
to  an  account  almost  as  high  and  solemn  as  that  of 
Jesus.     That  an  opposition  there  is,  in  all  matter  of  what 


2o6         ,      LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

we  call  cofiduct^  between  a  man's  first  impulses  and  what 
he  ultimately  finds  to  be  the  real  law  of  his  being  ;  that  a 
man  accomplishes  his  right  function  as  a  man,  fulfils  his 
end,  hits  the  mark,  in  giving  effect  to  the  real  law  of  his 
being ;  and  that  happiness  attends  his  thus  hitting  the 
mark — all  good  observers  report.  No  statement  of  this 
general  experience  can  be  simpler  or  more  faithful  than 
one  given  us  by  that  great  naturaUst,  Aristotle.^  '  In  all 
wholes  made  up  of  parts,'  says  he,  '  there  is  a  ruler  and  a 
ruled ;  throughout  nature  this  is  so  ;  we  see  it  even  in 
things  without  life,  they  have  their  harvwny  or  laiu.  The 
living  being  is  composed  of  soul  and  body,  whereof  the 
one  is  naturally  ruler  and  the  other  ruled.  Now  what  is 
natural  we  are  to  learn  from  what  fulfils  the  law  of  its 
nature  most,  and  not  from  what  is  depraved.  So  we 
ought  to  take  the  man  who  has  the  best  disposition  of 
body  and  soul ;  and  in  him  we  shall  find  that  this  is  so  ; 
for  in  people  that  are  grievous  both  to  others  and  to 
themselves  the  body  may  often  appear  ruling  the  soul, 
because  such  people  are  poor  creatures  and  false  to  nature.' 
And  Aristotle  goes  on  to  distinguish  between  the  body^ 
over  which,  he  says,  the  rule  of  the  soul  is  absolute, 
and  the  movemejit  of  thought  and  desire^  over  which 
reason  has,  says  he,  *  a  constitutional  rule,'  in  words  which 

^  Politics,  i,  5. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    207 

exactly  recal  St.  Paul's  phrase  for  our  double  enemy  : 
'the  flesh  and  the  cnrrait  thoughts'  So  entirely  are  we 
here  on  ground  of  general  experience.  And  if  we  go  on 
and  take  this  maxim  from  Stobseus:  'All  fine  acquirement 
implies  a  foregoing  exercise  of  self-control  •,''^  or  this 
from  the  Latin  poet  :  '  Ride  your  current  self  or  it  will 
rule  you  \  bridle  it  in  and  chain  it  down  ! '  ^  or  this  from 
Goethe's  autobiography :  '  Everything  cries  out  to  us 
that  we  must  renounce ; '  ^  or  still  more  this  from  his 
Faust:  'Thou  must  go  without,  go  without  I  that  is  the 
everlasting  song  which  every  hour,  all  our  life  through, 
hoarsely  sings  to  us  !  ''* — then  we  have  testimony  not  only 
to  the  necessity  of  this  natural  law  of  rule  and  suppression, 
but  also  to  the  strain  and  labour  and  suffering  which 
attend  it.  But  when  we  come  a  little  further  and  take  a 
sentence  like  this  of  Plato  :  '  Of  sufferings  and  pains 
cometh  help,  for  it  is  not  possible  by  any  other  way  to  be 
ridded  of  our  iniquity  ;  '^  then  we  get  a  higher  strain,  a 

^   naj/TJ>s  KaXov  Krrifxaros  ttSuos  Trpor]ye7Tai  6  kot   iyKpaTeiav. 
2  .     .     .     ,     Animum  rege,  qui  nisi  paret 

Imperat ;  hunc  frcenis,  hunc  tu  compesce  catenis. 
^  Alles  ruft  uns  zu,  dass  wir  entsagen  sollen. 

*  Entbehren  sollst  du  !  sollst  entbehren  ! 
Das  ist  der  ewige  Gesang, 
Den  unser  ganzes  Leben  lang 
Uns  heiser  jede  Stunde  singt. 
*  At'  a\y7}d6vuv  Kot  odvvuv yiyverai  7]  u(p4keia-  oh  yapoldv  re  &KKUS. 
oStKios  aTraAAoTTeo-Sat. — Go7-gias,  c.  81. 


2o8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

strain  like  St.  Peter's  :  He  that  hath  suffered  in  the  flesh 
hath  ceased  from  sin ;  and  we  are  brought  to  see,  not  only 
the  fiecessity  of  the  law  of  rule  and  suppression,  not  only 
the  pain  and  suffering  in  it,  but  also  its  beneficence. 
And  this  positive  sense  of  beneficence,  salutariness,  and 
hope,  comes  out  yet  more  strongly  when  Wordsworth  says 
to  Duty  :  '  Nor  know  we  anything  so  fair  as  is  the  smile 
upon  thy  face ; '  or  when  Bishop  Wilson  says  :  '  They 
that  deny  themselves  will  be  sure  to  find  their  strength 
increased,  their  affections  raised,  and  their  inward  peace 
continually  augmented  ; '  and  most  of  all,  perhaps,  when 
we  hear  from  Goethe  :  '  Die  and  come  to  life  !  for  so  long 
as  this  is  not  accomplished  thou  art  but  a  troubled  guest 
upon  an  earth  of  gloom ! '  ^  But  this  is  evidently  borrowed 
from  Jesus,  and  by  one  whose  testimony  is  of  all  the  more 
weight,  because  he  certainly  would  not  have  become  thus 
a  borrower  from  Jesus,  unless  the  truth  had  compelled 
him. 

And  never  certainly  was  the  joy,  which  in  self- 
renouncement  underhes  the  pain,  so  brought  out  as  when 
Jesus  boldly  called  the  suppression  of  our  first  impulses 
■and  current  thoughts:  life,  real  life,  eternal  life.     So  that 

'  Stirb  und  werde  ! 
Denn,  so  lang  du  das  nicht  hast, 
Bist  du  nur  ein  trliber  Gast 
Auf  der  dunkeln  Erde  ! 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS  TO  HIMSELF.    209 

Jesus  not  oyAysaw  this  great  necessary  truth  of  there  being, 
as  Aristotle  says,  in  human  nature  a  part  to  rule  and  a  part 
to  be  ruled  ;  he  saw  it  so  thoroughly,  that  he  saw  through 
the  suffering  at  its  surface  to  the  joy  at  its  centre,  filled  it 
"vvith  promise  and  hope,  and  made  it  infinitely  attractive. 
As  Israel,  therefore,  is  '  the  people  of  righteousness,' 
because,  though  others  have  perceived  the  importance  of 
righteousness,  Israel,  above  everyone,  perceived  the  hap- 
piness  of  it ;  so  self-renouncement,  the  main  factor  in 
conduct  or  righteousness,  is  'the  secret  of  Jesus,'  because, 
though  others  have  seen  that  it  was  necessary,  Jesus, 
above  everyone,  saw  that  it  was  peace,  Joy,  life. 

Now,  we  may  observe,  that  even  Aristotle  (and  it  is  a 
mark  of  his  greatness)  does  not,  in  the  passage  we  have 
quoted  from  him,  begin  with  a  complete  system  of  psycho- 
physiology,  and  show  us  where  and  how  and  why  in  this 
system  the  rule  of  renouncement  comes  in,  and  draw  out 
for  us  definitively  the  law  of  our  being  towards  which  this 
rule  leads  up.  He  says  that  the  rule  exists,  that  it  is 
ancillary  to  the  law  of  our  being,  and  that  we  are  to  study 
the  best  men,  in  whom  it  most  exists,  to  make  us  see 
that  it  is  thus  ancillary.  He  here  appeals  throughout  to 
a  verifying  sense,  such  as  we  have  said  that  everyone  in 
this  great  but  plain  matter  of  conduct  really  has;  he  does 
not  appeal  to  a  speculative  theory  of  the  system  of  things, 

p 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


and  deduce  conclusions  from  it.  And  he  shows  his 
greatness  in  this,  because  the  law  of  our  being  is  not 
something  which  is  already  definitively  known  and  can  be 
exhibited  as  part  of  a  speculative  theory  of  the  system  of 
things  ;  it  is  something  which  discovers  itself  and  becomes, 
as  we  follow  (among  other  things)  the  rule  of  renounce- 
ment. What  we  can  say  with  most  certainty  about  the 
law  of  our  being  is,  that  we  find  the  rule  of  renouncement 
lead  sensibly  up  to  it.  In  matters  of  practice  and  conduct 
therefore,  an  experience,  like  this,  is  really  a  far  safer 
ground  to  insist  on  than  any  speculative  theory  of  the 
system  of  things.  And  to  a  theory  of  such  sort  Jesus  never 
appeals.  Here  is  what  characterises  his  teaching,  and  dis- 
tinguishes him,  for  instance,  from  the  author  of  the  Fourth 
Gospel.  This  author  handles  what  we  may  call  theoso- 
phical  speculation  in  a  beautiful  and  impressive  manner ; 
his  introduction  to  his  Gospel  is  undoubtedly  in  a  very 
noble  and  profound  strain.  But  it  is  theory ;  an  intellec- 
tual theory  of  the  divine  nature  and  the  system  of  things, 
which  was  then,  and  is  still  at  present,  utterly  irreducible 
to  experience.  And  therefore  it  is  impossible  even  to 
conceive  Jesus  himself  uttering  the  introduction  to  the 
Fourth  Gospel ;  because  theojy  Jesus  never  touches,  but 
bases  himself  invariably  on  experience.  True,  the  expe- 
rience must,  for  philosophy,  have  its  place  in  a  theory  of 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    211 

the  system  of  human  nature,  wlien  the  theory  is  perfect ; 
but  the  point  is,  that  the  experience  is  ripe  and  solid, 
and  to  be  used  safely,  long  before  the  theory.  And  it 
was  the  experience  which  Jesus  always  used. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  attempts  may  not  improperly 
be  made,  even  now, — by  those,  at  least,  who  have  a 
talent  for  these  matters, — to  exhibit  the  experience,  with 
what  leads  to  it  and  what  derives  from  it,  in  a  system 
of  psycho-physiolog)^  And  then,  perhaps,  it  will  be 
found  to  be  connected  with  other  truths  of  psycho- 
physiology,  such  as  the  unity  of  life,  as  it  is  called, 
and  the  impersonality  of  reason.  Only  then  it  will  be 
philosophy,  mental  exercitation,  and  will  concern  us  as 
a  matter  of  science,  not  of  conduct.  And,  as  the  dis- 
cipline of  conduct  is  three-fourths  of  life,  for  our  aesthetic 
and  intellectual  disciplines,  real  as  these  are,  there  is 
but  one-fourth  of  life  left ;  and  if  we  let  art  and  science 
divide  this  one-fourth  fairly  between  them,  they  will 
have  just  one-eighth  of  life  each. 

So  the  exhibition  of  the  truth  :  '  He  that  loveth  his  life 
shall  lose  it,  ajid  he  that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall 
keep  it  tinto  life  eternal^  in  its  order  and  place  as  a  truth 
of  psycho-physiology,  concerns  one-eighth  of  our  life  and 
no  more.  But  Jesus,  we  say,  exhibited  nothing  for  the 
benefit  of  this  one-eighth  of  us ;  this  is  what  distinguishes 
p  2 


212  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


him  from  all  moralists  and  philosophers,  and  even  from 
the  greatest  of  his  own  disciples.  How  he  reached  a 
doctrine  we  cannot  say ;  but  he  always  exhibited  it  as  an 
intuition  and  a  practical  rule,  and  a  practical  rule  which, 
if  adopted,  would  have  the  force  of  an  intuition  for  its 
adopter  also.  This  is  why  none  of  his  doctrines  are 
of  the  character  of  that  favourite  doctrine  of  the  Bishop 
of  Gloucester,  'the  blessed  truth  that  the  God  of  the 
universe  is  a  Person ; '  because  this  doctrine  is  incapable 
of  application  as  a  practical  rule,  and  can  never  come 
to  have  the  force  of  an  intuition.  But  what  we  call  the 
secret  of  Jesus  :  '  He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it, 
and  he  that  hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it 
unto  life  eternal^  was  a  truth  of  which  he  could  say  :  '  It 
is  so  j  try  it  yourself  and  you  will  see  it  is  so,  by  the  sense 
of  living,  of  going  right,  hitting  the  mark,  succeeding, 
which  you  will  get.' 

And  the  same  with  the  commandment,  '  Love  one  an- 
cther,'  which  is  the  positive  side  of  the  commandment, 
*  Renounce  thyself  ^  and,  like  this,  can  be  drawn  out  as  a 
truth  of  pyscho-physiology.  Jesus  exhibited  it  as  an  in- 
tuition and  a  practical  rule  ;  and  as  what,  by  being  prac- 
tised, would,  through  giving  happiness,  prove  its  own  truth 
as  a  rule  of  life.     This,  we  say,  is  of  the  very  essence 

'  '  We  know  that  we  have  passed  from  death  to  life,' — how?  '■be- 
cause ive  love  the  hi'ethren.^     See  I  John,  iii,  14. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS  TO  HIMSELF.    213 

of  his  secret  of  self-renouncement,  as  of  his  method  of 
inwardness; — that  its  truth  will  be  found  to  commend 
itself  by  happhiess^  to  prove  itself  by  happifiess.  And  of 
the  secret  more  especially  is  this  true ;  and  as  we  have 
said,  that  though  there  gathers  round  the  word  '  God ' 
very  much  besides,  yet  we  shall  in  general,  in  reading  the 
Bible,  get  the  surest  hold  on  the  word  '  God '  by  giving  it 
the  sense  of  the  Eter7ial  Power,  not  ourselves,  which  makes 
for  righteousness,  so  we  shall  get  the  best  hold  on  many 
expressions  of  Jesus  by  referring  them,  though  they  in- 
clude more,  yet  primarily  and  pointedly  to  his  '  secret,' 
and  to  the  happiness  which  this  contained.  Bread  of 
life,  living  water,  these  are,  in  general,  Jesus,  Jesus  in 
his  whole  being  and  in  his  total  effect ;  but  in  especial 
they  are  Jesus  as  offering  his  secret.  And  when  Jesus 
says  :  '  He  that  eateth  me  shall  live  by  me  ! '  we  shall 
understand  the  words  best  if  we  think  of  his  secret. 

And  so  again  with  the  famous  words  to  the  woman  by 
the  well  in  Samaria  :  '  Whosoever  drinketh  of  this  water 
shall  thirst  again,  but  whosoever  drinketh  of  the  water 
that  I  shall  give  him  shall  never  thirst,  but  the  water 
that  I  shall  give  him  shall  be  in  him  a  fount  of  water 
springing  up  unto  everlasting  life.'  These  words,  how  are 
we  to  take  them,  so  as  to  reach  their  meaning  best? 
What  distinctly  is  this  'water  that  I  shall  give  him'? 
Jesus  himself  and  his  word,  no  doubt ;  yet  so  we  come 


214  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

but  to  that  very  notion,  which  Jeremy  Taylor  warns 
us  against  as  vague,  of  geithig  Christ.  The  Bishop  of 
Gloucester  will  tell  us,  perhaps,  that  it  is  '  the  blessed  truth 
that  the  Creator  of  the  universe  is  a  Person,'  or  the  doc- 
trine of  the  consubstantiality  of  the  Eternal  Son.  But 
surely  it  would  be  a  strong  figure  of  speech  to  say  of  these 
doctrines,  that  a  man,  after  receiving  them,  could  never 
again  feel  thirsty  !  See,  on  the  contrary,  how  the  words  suit 
the  sec7'ct :  '  He  that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that 
hateth  his  life  in  this  world  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eter- 
nal.' This  '  secret  of  Jesus,'  as  w^e  call  it,  will  be  found 
applicable  to  all  the  thousand  problems  which  the  exer- 
cise of  conduct  daily  offers  ;  it  alone  can  solve  them  all 
happily,  and  may  indeed  be  called  '  a  fount  of  water 
springing  up  unto  everlasting  life.'  And,  in  general, 
wherever  the  words  /i/e  and  death  are  used  by  Jesus,  we 
shall  do  well  to  have  his  '  secret '  at  hand  ;  for  in  his 
thoughts,  on  these  occasions,  it  is  never  far  off. 

And  now,  too,  we  can  see  why  it  is  a  mistake,  and  may 
lead  to  much  error,  to  exhibit  any  series  of  maxims,  like 
those  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  as  the  ultimate  sum  and 
formula  into  which  Christianity  may  be  run  up.  Maxims  of 
this  kind  are  but  applications  of  the  method  and  the  secret 
of  Jesus  ;  and  the  method  and  secret  are  capable  of  yet 
an  infinite  number  more  of  such  applications.    Christianity 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    215 


is  a  source ;  no  one  supply  of  water  and  refreshment  that 
comes  from  it  can  be  called  the  sum  of  Christianity. 

5- 
A  method  oi  inwardness^  a  secret  of  self-renoiincetnent ; — 
but  can  any  statement  of  what  Jesus  brought  be  com- 
plete, which  does  not  take  in  his  mildness'^  To  the  repre- 
sentative texts  already  given  there  is  certainly  to  be 
added  this  other  :  '  Learn  of  me  that  I  am  mild  and  lowly 
in  heart,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls  P  Shall 
we  attach  mildness  to  the  method,  because,  without  it,  a 
clear  and  limpid  view  inwards  is  impossible  ?  Or  shall 
we  attach  it  to  the  secret  ? — the  dying  to  faults  of  temper  is 
apart,  certainly,  of  dying  to  one's  ordinary  self,  one:  s  life  if i 
this  world.  Mildness,  however,  is  rather  an  element  in 
which,  in  Jesus,  both  method  and  secret  worked ;  the 
medium  through  which  both  the  method  and  the  secret 
were  exhibited.  We  may  think  of  it  as  perfecdy  illus- 
trated and  exemplified  in  his  answer  to  the  foolish  ques- 
tion, Who  is  the  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ? — when, 
taking  a  little  child  and  setting  him  in  the  midst,  he  said  : 
'Whosoever  receives  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child, 
the  same  is  the  greatest  in  it.'  Here  are  both  inward 
appraisal  and  self-renouncement;  but  what  is  most  admir- 
able is  the  'sweet  reasonableness,'  the  exquisite,  mild, 


2i6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

winning  felicity,  with  which  the  renouncement  and  the  in- 
ward appraisal  are  applied  and  conveyed.  And  the  con- 
junction of  the  three  in  Jesus, — the  method  of  inwardness, 
and  the  secret  of  self-renouncement,  working  in  and 
through  this  element  of  mildness,— produced  the  total 
impression  of  his  '  epieikeia,'  or  sweet  reasonableness ;  a 
total  impression  ineffable  and  indescribable  for  the  dis- 
ciples, as  also  it  was  irresistible  for  them,  but  at  which  their 
descriptive  words,  words  like  this  '■  sweet  reasonable7iess^  and 
like  '/////  of  gj'ace  and  truth^  are  thrown  out  and  aimed. 

And  this  total  stamp  of  'grace  and  truth,' this  exquisite 
conjunction  and  balance,  in  an  element  of  mildness,  of 
a  method  of  inwardness  perfectly  handled  and  a  self- 
renouncement  perfectly  kept,  was  found  in  Jesus  alone. 
Yetwhat  are  the  method  of  inwardness  and  thesecret  of  self- 
renouncement  without  the  sure  balance  of  Jesus,  without 
his  epieikeia  ?  Much,  but  very  far  indeed  from  what  he 
showed  or  what  he  meant ;  they  come  to  be  used  blindly, 
used  mechanically,  used  amiss,  and  lead  to  the  strangest 
aberrations.  St.  Simeon  Stylites  on  his  column,  Pascal 
girdled  with  spikes,  Lacordaire  flogging  himself  on  his 
death-bed,  are  what  the  seci-et  by  itself  produces.  The 
method  by  itself  gives  us  our  political  Dissenter,  pluming 
himself  on  some  irrational '  conscientious  objections,'  and 
not  knowing  that  with  conscience  he  has  done  nothing 
'  Bossuet  calls  him  le  dcbonnaire  Jesus. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.   217 

until  he  has  got  to  the  bottom  of  conscience,  and  made 
it  tell  him  right.  Therefore  the  disciples  of  Christ  were 
not  told  to  believe  in  his  method,  or  to  beheve  in  his 
secret,  but  to  believe  in  hiiti ;  they  were  not  told  to 
follow  the  method  or  to  follow  the  secret,  but  they 
were  told  :  '  Follow  7?ie ! '  It  was  only  by  fixing  their 
heart  and  mind  on  him  that  they  could  learn  to  use 
the  method  and  secret  right;  by  ^feeding  on  him,'  by, 
as  he  often  said,  '  remaining  in  him.' 

But  this  is  just  what  Israel  had  been  told  to  do 
as  regards  the  Eternal  himself.  '  I  have  set  the  Eternal 
always  before  me;^  'Mine  eyes  are  ever  toward '^iQ  Eternal ;' 
*  The  Eternal  is  the  strength  of  my  life; '  '  Wait,  I  say, 
on  the  Eternal ! '  Now,  then,  let  us  go  back  again  for  a 
little  to  Israel,  and  to  Israel's  beHef. 

6. 

We  have  seen  how  the  Jews,  at  the  coming  of  Christ, 
had  their  thoughts  full  of  a  grand  and  turbid  phantasma- 
gory; — a  vision  of  God  judging  the  world,  sending  the 
Son  of  Man  on  the  clouds  of  heaven,  taking  vengeance  on 
nis  enemies,  restoring  the  kingdom  to  Israel.  And  we 
marked  the  line  of  texts  which  this  expectation  followed  : 
from  the  '  Prophet '  of  Moses  to  the  victorious  '  Rod  out 
of  the   stem  of  Jesse'   of   Isaiah,   and  thence   to   the 


2i8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

*  Messiah/  the  '  Son  of  Man,'  the  '  Son  of  God,'  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel. 

But  there  was  afiother  line  of  texts  pointing  to  a  ser- 
vant and  emissary  of  God,  besides  the  line  pointing  to 
the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  the  princely  and  con- 
quering Root  of  David.  It  stood  written  :  '  Behold  my 
servant  whom  I  uphold,  mine  elect  in  whom  my  soul 
delighteth !  I  have  put  my  spirit  upon  him  ;  he  shall 
declare  judgment  to  the  Gentiles.  He  shall  not  strive 
nor  cry,  nor  cause  his  voice  to  be  heard  in  the  streets ; 
he  shall  declare  judgment  with  truth.  He  shall  not  fail 
nor  be  discouraged,  until  he  set  judgment  in  the  earth  ; 
far  lands  wait  for  his  law.'     Who  is  this  ? 

And  again  :  '  He  was  despised,  and  we  esteemed  him 
not;  but  he  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions,  he 
was  bruised  for  our  iniquities.  All  we  like  sheep  were 
gone  astray,  we  were  turned  every  one  to  his  own 
way;  and  the  Eternal  hath  laid  on  him  the  iniquity 
of  us  all.  And  he  made  his  grave  with  the  wicked, 
although  he  had  done  no  violence ;  yet  it  pleased 
the  Eternal  to  bruise  him.  When  he  hath  made 
his  life  an  offering  for  sin,  he  shall  see  his  seed,  he 
shall  prolong  his  days,  and  the  pleasure  of  the  Eternal 
shall  prosper  in  his  hand  ;  he  shall  see  of  the  travail 
of  his  soul  and  shall  be  satisfied  ! '     Who,  again,  is  this  ? 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.   2i9 


Is  it  the  'Prophet'  Uke  great  Moses?  Is  it  the  brilliant 
*  Branch '  out  of  the  root  of  Jesse,  smiting  the  earth  with 
the  rod  of  his  mouth,  and  with  the  breath  of  his 
lips  slaying  the  wicked  ;  with  his  dominion  going  from 
the  one  sea  to  the  other,  all  things  falling  down  before 
him,  all  nations  serving  him;  with  his  seed  to  en- 
dure for  ever,  and  his  throne  as  the  days  of  heaven  ? 
This  Branch  it  was,  whom  Israel  identified  with  the 
Messiah  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  to  give  the 
kingdom  to  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  with  the  Son 
of  Man  sitting  on  the  throne  of  his  glory.  Was  the 
afflicted  and  loiuly  servant  at  the  same  time  the  Branch, 
and  therefore  the  Messiah,  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  bringer 
of  the  kingdom  ?  Israel  never  identified  them.  Here  and 
there  he  made  guesses  and  snatches  at  the  truth.  Momen- 
tary elevations  of  it  there  were,  faint  approaches  towards 
connecting  the  two  ideals,  isolated  tentatives;  but  the 
Jewish  i^eople  at  large  had  never  grasped  the  idea  of 
the  identification,  and  it  had  never  been  so  presented 
to  them  that  they  could  grasp  it. 

And,  as  we  have  already  said,  it  was  an  extraordinary 
novelty,  although  the  profound  and  the  only  true  solu- 
tion of  Israel's  wonderful  history,  when  this  identifi- 
cation was  by  Jesus  boldly  made.  '  A  little  while,'  the 
Jews  were  saying,   'and  the  God  of  heaven  shall  set  up 


220  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

a  kingdom  which  shall  never  be  destroyed'  ^  — '  Nay/ 
answered  Jesus,  *  the  time  is  fulfilled  a?id  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  at  hand !  change  the  inner  man,  and  believe  the  good 
?iezus r — 'But,'  said  the  Jews,  ^ Elias  must  first  co7?ie.'* 
Jesus  replied  :  '■  Elias  is  conie  already ;  John  the  Baptist, 
my  precursor,  who  preached  a  change  of  the  inner  man 
as  I  do  !' — '  But  there  shall  be  a  time  of  trouble'  the  Jews 
urged,  '  such  as  nroer  was  since  there  was  a  nation  to  that 
time;  abo??iination  and  desolation;  a  fiery  stream  issuing 
from  before  the  throne  of  the  Ancient  of  days ;  one  like  the 
Son  of  Man  coming  with  the  clouds  of  heaven  ! '  ^  Jesus 
surveyed  the  fierce  and  impracticable  people  before  him, 
with  their  inevitable  future  :  '  Fear  not,'  he  answered 
mournfully,  '  where  the  carcase  is,  there  7uill  the  eagles  be 
gathered  together  f  soon  enough  you  will  have  the  affliction 
such  as  was  not  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  this 
time,  the  Son  of  Man  coming,  Jerusalem  encompassed 
with  armies,  abomination  and  desolation,  not  one  stone 
of  the  Temple  left  on  another.' — ^But  the  judgment  shall 
sit  I'  said  the  Jews,  •  and  at  that  time  the  people  shall  be 
delivered,  every  one  that  shall  be  found  written  in  the 
book ! ' — And  the  judgment  is  coming,  Jesus  answered, 
the  world-judgment  of  Jerusalem's  ruin !  but,  moreover, 
to  this  outward  crisis  shall  correspond  an  inward  judgment, 
^  Dan.,  ii,  44.  -  Dan.,  xii,  I,  II  ;  vii,  lo,  13. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    221 


the  new  crisis  of  conscience.  '  The  hour  is  coming,  and 
noiv  is,  when  the  dead  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of 
God;  and  they  who  hear  shall  live.  Every  one  that  is 
of  the  truth  heareth  my  voice;  the  word  that  I  speak,  the 
same  shall yV/^^  him.'— 'But  the  righteous,'  the  Jews  said, 
'shall  aiuake  to  everlasting  life/'^'U  a  man  keep  my 
word,'  answered  Jesus,  'he  shall  never  see  death ;  but  it 
shall  be  in  him  a  fount  of  water,  springing  up  unto  ez'e}'- 
lasting  life:—.'Bi\t  God's  Messiah,'  finally  rejoined  the 
Jews,  'shall  sj?iite  the  earth  with  the  breath  of  his  mouth  ! 
his  thro?ie  shall  aidure  for  ever,  and  his  dominion  shall  be 
from  the  one  sea  to  the  other;  the  Gentiles  shall  be  given 
to  hiin  ./— '  Ye  know  not  what  spirit  ye  are  of  I'  said  Jesus  : 
'He  is  fnild,  and  lowly  in  heart ;  he  must  suffer  many 
things  and  be  rejected  of  his  general io7i.  Except  a  corn  of 
vf\iQ^t  fall  into  the  ground  ajid  die,  it  abideth  alone,  but  if 
it  die  it  bringeth  forth  much  fruit !  and  /,  if  I  be  lifted  up 
from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  wito  me'  Then,  turninf^ 
to  the  disciples:  'Fear  not,  little  flock,  for  it  is  your 
Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom !  And 
other  sheep  I  have,  not  of  this  fold ;  they  also  shall  be 
brought!  and  there  shall  be  one  fold,  one  shepherd.' 

By  a  line  like  this  did  Jesus  identify  the  t^vo  ideals,— 
the  ideal  of  popular  Aberglaube  and  his  own.  And  this 
is  why  the  phrases  of  the  popular  Aberglaube  come  so 


222  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

often  from  his  lips ;  he  was  for  ever  translating  it  into 
the  sense  of  the  higher  ideal,  the  only  sense  in  which  it 
had  truth  and  grandeur.  It  was  hopeless  that  the  Jews 
should  go  along  with  him.  The  best  of  his  disciples 
went  along  with  him  but  imperfectly,  and  popular 
Christianity  has  fallen  far  behind  the  best  of  his  disciples. 
The  hour  is  coining,  and  now  is,  when  the  dead  shall  hear 
the  voice  of  the  Son  of  Man,  andthey  who  hear  shall  live; — 
this  saying  could  not  lift  the  Jews  out  of  their  Aber- 
glaube  into  the  ideal  of  Jesus,  with  its  new  meaning  for 
the  words  life  and  death.  But  neither  has  it  lifted  popu- 
lar Christianity,  which  out  of  this  and  other  like  sayings 
has  fashioned  for  itself  an  Aberglaube  precisely  corre- 
sponding to  that  of  the  Jews. 

Yet  Jesus  could  not  but  use  the  dominant  phrases  of 
the  Jewish  religion,  if  he  was  to  talk  to  the  Jewish  people 
about  religion  at  all.  And  we  have  now  seen  that  he 
did  use  them,  and  how.  And  this  leads  us  further,  and  ex- 
plains his  way  of  using  such  words  as  the  Christ  or  Messiah, 
the  Son  of  Man,  the  So?i  of  God.  For,  as  the  Jews  were 
always  talking  about  the  Messiah,  so  they  were  always 
talking,  we  know,  about  God.  And  they  believed  in  God's 
Messiah  after  their  notion  of  him,  because  they  believed 
in  God  after  their  notion  of  him  ; — but  both  notions  were 
wrong.     All  their  aspirations  were  now  turned  towards  the 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.   223 

Messiah;  whoever  would  do  them  good,  must  first  change 
their  ideal  of  the  Messiah.  But  their  ideal  of  God's 
Messiah  depended  upon  their  notion  of  God.  This  notion 
was  now  false,  like  their  ideal  of  the  Messiah  ;  but  once 
it  had  been  true,  or,  at  least,  true  comparatively ; — once 
Israel  had  had  the  intuition  of  God,  as  the  Eternal  that 
loveth  righteousness.  And  the  intuition  had  never  been  so 
lost  but  that  it  was  capable  of  being  revived.  To  change 
their  dangerous  and  misleading  ideal  of  God's  Messiah, 
therefore,  and  to  make  the  Jews  believe  in  the  true 
Messiah,  could  only  be  accomplished  by  bringing  them 
back  to  a  truer  notion  of  God  and  his  righteousness.  By 
this  it  could,  perhaps,  be  accomplished,  but  by  this  only. 
And  this  is  what  Jesus  sought  to  do.  He  sought  to- 
do  it  in  the  way  we  have  seen,  by  his  '  method '  and 
his  '  secret.'  First,  by  his  '  method '  of  a  change  of  the 
inner  man  : — '  Do  not  be  all  abroad,  do  not  he  in  the 
air,'  ^  he  said  to  his  nation ;  '  you  look  for  the  kingdom  of 
God  ;  the  kingdom  of  God  is  the  reign  of  righteousness, 
God's  will  done  by  all  mankind ;  well,  then,  seek  the  king- 
dom of  God !  the  kingdom  of  God  is  luithiiiyoii.'  And,  next, 
by  his  '  secret '  of  peace  : — '  Rejionnce  thyself,  and  take  tip 
thy  cross  daily  and  follow  me.  He  that  loveth  his  life  shall 
lose  it,  and  he  that  hateth  his  life  in  this  zvorld  shall  keep  it 
wito  life  eternal.'    And  the  revolution  thus  made  was  sa 


224  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


immense,  that  the  least  in  this  new  kingdom  of  heaven, 
this  realm  of  the  '  method '  and  the  '  secret,'  was  greater, 
Jesus  said,  than  one  who,  like  John  the  Baptist,  was  even 
greatest  in  the  old  realm  of  Jewish  religion.  And  those 
who  obeyed  the  gospel  of  this  new  kingdom  came  to  the 
light ',  they  hsidjoy;  they  entered  into/^^^<?;  they  ceased 
to  thirst;  the  word  became  in  them  a  fount  of  water 
springing  up  unto  everlasting  life.  But  these  were  the 
admitted  tests  of  righteousness,  of  obeying  the  voice  of 
the  Eternal  who  loveth  righteousness.  '  There  ariseth 
light  for  the  righteous,  and  gladness  for  the  upright  in 
heart ;  he  that  feareth  the  Eternal,  happy  is  he  ! ' 

Now,  the  special  value  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  is,  not  that 
it  exhibits  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus, — for  all  the 
Gospels  exhibit  them, — but  that  it  exhibits  the  establish- 
ment of  them  by  means  of  Israel's  own  idea  of  God, 
cleared  and  re-awakened.  The  argument  is  :  '  You  are 
always  talking  about  God,  God's  word,  righteousness; 
always  saying  that  God  is  your  Father,  and  will  send 
his  Messiah  for  your  salvation.  Well,  he  who  receives 
me  shows  that  he  talks  about  God  with  a  knowledge  of 
what  he  is  saying ;  he  sets  to  his  seal  that  God  is  true. 
He  who  is  of  God  heareth  the  words  of  God;  roery  one  that 
heareth  and  learneth  of  the  Father  cometh  tmto  me,  and  ye 
have  not  his  word abidifig  in  you,  because,  whom  he  hath  sent. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    225 

Jiim  ye  belirve  not ;  if  a?ty  one  will  do  God's  will  he  shall 
Mow  of  the  doctrine^  whether  it  be  of  God'  This,  there- 
fore, is  what  Jesus  said  : — '  I,  whose  message  of  salvation 
is:  If  a  man  keep  my  word  he  shall  7ieuer  see  death  I  am 
sent  of  God ;  because  he,  who  obeys  my  saying :  Renounce 
thyself  and  follow  me!  shall  feel  that  he  truly  lives,  and 
that  he  is  following,  therefore,  Israel's  God  of  whom  it  is 
said  :  TJloil  wilt  show  me  the  path  of  life' 

The  doctrine  therefore  is  double: — Renounce  thyself 
the  secret  of  Jesus,  involving  a  foregoing  exercise  of  his 
method;  and.  Follow  me^ivho  am  sent  from  God!  That 
is  the  favourite  expression.  Sent  from  God ;  *  The  Father 
hath  sent  me,  God  hath  sent  me.'  Now  this  identified 
Jesus  and  his  salvation  with  the  Messiah  whom,  with 
his  salvation,  the  Jews  were  expecting.  For  his  disciples, 
therefore,  and  for  Christendom  after  them,  Jesus  was  and 
is  the  Messiah  or  Christ.  This,  we  say,  his  disciples,  and 
Christendom  after  them,  have  comprehended  and  ac- 
cepted :  his  identification  of  himself  mth  the  Messiah. 
On  the  other  hand,  his  fruitful  and  profound  harmonisa- 
tion  of  the  two  ideals, — the  mild  and  sufi"ering  Servant 
of  God,  and  the  Anointed  Prince  smiting  the  earth 
with  the  breath  of  his  mouth  and  giving  the  king- 
dom to  the  saints, — was  not  understood  and  accepted. 
Nevertheless,  the  turbid  Abe?'glaiibe,  with  which  the  Jews 

Q 


226  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


had  surrounded  this  latter  ideal,  was  by  the  disciples 
of  Jesus  borrowed,  and  transferred  wholesale  to  Christ  and 
Christ's  future  advent. 

Meanwhile,  as  with  the  word  God,  so  with  the  word 
Christ ;  Jesus  did  not  give  any  scientific  definition  of  it, — 
such  as,  for  instance,  that  Christ  was  the  Logos.  He  took 
the  word  Christ  as'the  Jews  used  it,  as  he  took  the  word 
God  as  the  Jews  used  it ;  and  as  he  amended  their 
notion  of  God,  f/ie  Eternal  who  loveth  righteousness,  by 
showing  what  righteous7iess  really  was,  so  he  amended 
their  notion  of  the  Messiah,  the  chosen  bringer  of  God's 
salvation,  by  showing  what  salvation  really  was.  And 
though  his  own  application  of  terms  to  designate  him- 
self is  not  a  matter  where  we  can  perfectly  trust  his 
reporters  (as  it  is  clear,  for  instance,  that  the  writer  of  the 
Fourth  Gospel  was  more  metaphysical  ^  than  Jesus  him- 
self),^ yet  there  is  no  difficulty  in  supposing  him  to  have 
applied  to  himself  each  and  all  of  the  terms  which  the 
Jews  in  any  way  used  to  describe  the  Messiah, — Messiah 
or  Christ,  God's  Choseji  or  Beloved  or  Consecrated  or 
Glorified  One,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Son  of  Man  ;  because 

'  It  is  to  be  remembered,  too,  that  whereas  Jesus  spoke  in  Ara- 
maic, the  most  concrete  and  unmetaphysical  of  languages,  he  is 
reported  in  Greek,  the  most  metaphysical.  What,  in  the  mouth  of 
Jesus,  was  the  word  which  comes  to  us  as  /xovoyevris  [piily -begotten)  ? 
And  yet,  in  the  Greek  record,  even  this  word  is  not,  like  only -begotten 
in  our  translation,  reserved  for  Christ;  see  Luke,  ix,  38, 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS  TO  HIMSELF.    227 


his  concern,  as  we  have  said,  was  with  his  countrymen's 
idea  of  salvation,  not  with  their  terms  for  designating 
the  bringer  of  it.  But  the  simplest  term,  the  temi  which 
gives  least  opening  into  theosophy, — Son  of  Man^ — he 
certainly  preferred.  So,  too,  he  loved  the  simple  expres- 
sions, '■  God  seiit  me,'  '  The  Father  hath  sent  me ;'  and  he 
chose  so  often  to  say,  in  a  general  manner,  '  I  am  He^ 
rather  than  to  say  positively,  '  I  am  Christ.^ 

And  evidently  this  mode  of  speaking  struck  his 
hearers.  We  find  the  Jews  saying :  '  How  long  dost  thou 
make  us  to  doubt  ?  if  thou  be  Christ,  tell  us  plainly ! ' 
And  even  then  Jesus  does  not  answer  point-blank,  but 
prefers  to  say:  'I  have  told  you,  and  ye  believe  not.* 
Yet  this  does  not  imply  that  he  had  the  least  doubt 
or  hesitation  in  naming  himself  the  Messiah,  the  Son  of 
God;  but  only  that  his  concern  was,  as  we  have  said, 
with  God's  righteousness  and  Christ's  salvation,  and  that 
he  avoided  all  use  of  the  names  God,  and  Christ,  which 
might  give  an  opening  into  mere  theosophical  specula- 
tion. And  this  is  shown,  moreover,  by  the  largeness  and 
freedom, — almost,  one  may  say,  indifference, — of  his 
treatment  of  both  names ;  as  names,  in  using  which,  his 
hearers  were  always  in  danger  of  going  off  into  a  theo- 
sophy that  did  them  no  good  and  had  better  occupy 
them  as  little  as  possible.     '  /  and  my  Father  are  one  I ' 

Q2 


228  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

he  would  say  at  one  time  ;  and,  '  My  Father  is  greater 
than  ir  Sit  another.  When  the  Jews  were  offended  at  his 
caUing  himself  the  Son  of  God,  he  quotes  Scripture  to 
show  that  even  mere  men  were  in  Scripture  called  Go^s  ; 
and  for  you,  he  says,  who  go  by  the  letter  of  Scripture, 
surely  this  is  sanction  enough  for  calling  anyone,  whom 
God  sends,  the  Son  of  God!  He  did  not  at  all  mean,  that 
the  Messiah  was  a  son  of  God  merely  in  the  sense  in 
which  any  great  man  might  be  so  called  ;  but  he  meant 
that  these  questions  of  theosophy  were  useless  for  his 
hearers,  and  that  they  puzzled  themselves  with  them  in 
vain.  All  they  were  concerned  with  was,  that  he  was 
the  Messiah  they  expected,  sent  to  them  with  salvation 
from  God. 

It  is  the  same  when  Jesus  says  :  '  Before  Abraham  was, 
I  am  ! '  He  was  baffling  his  countrymen's  theosophy, 
showing  them  how  little  his  doctrine  was  meant  to  offer  a 
held  for  it.  '  Life,'  he  means,  '  the  life  of  him  who  lays 
down  his  life  that  he  may  take  it  again,  is  not  what  you 
suppose ;  your  notions  of  everlasting  life  are  all  false,  and 
with  your  present  notions  you  cannot  discuss  theology 
with  me  ;  follow  me  ! '  So,  again,  to  the  Jews  in  the  rut 
of  their  traditional  theology,  and  haggling  about  the  Son 
of  David ; — Jesus,  they  insisted,  could  not  be  the  Christ, 
because  the  Christ  was  the  Son  of  David.     Jesus  answers 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS  TO  HIMSELF.    229 

them  by  the  objection  that  in  the  Psalms  (and  the  Scrip- 
ture cannot  be  broken !)  David  calls  the  Christ  his  Lord; 
and  'if  he  call  him  Lord,  how  is  he  then  his  son?' 
The  argument  as  a  serious  argimient  is  perfectly  futile  ; 
the  King  of  Israel  is  going  out  to  war,  and  what  the 
Psalmist  really  sings  is  :  '  The  Eternal  saith  unto  the 
king's  majesty,  TJ1021  s halt  conquer .f  St.  Peter  in  the 
Acts  gravely  uses  the  same  verse  to  prove  Jesus  to  be 
Christ :  '  God,'  says  he,  'tells  my  Lord,  Sit  thou  upon  my 
7'ight  hand !  Yet  David  never  went  up  into  heaven.' 
And  this  is  exactly  of  a  piece  with  St.  Paul's  proving  salva- 
tion to  be  by  Christ  alone,  from  sced^  in  the  promise  to 
Abraham,  being  in  the  singular  not  the  plural.  It  is 
merely  false  criticism  of  the  Old  Testament,  such  as  the 
Jews  were  full  of,  and  of  which  the  Apostles  retained 
far  too  much.  But  the  Jews  were  full  of  it,  and  there- 
fore the  objection  of  Jesus  was  just  such  an  objection  as 
the  Jews  would  think  weighty.  He  used  it  as  he  might 
have  used  a  crux  about  personality  or  consubstantiality 
with  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  or  Gloucester; — to  bafifle 
and  put  to  rout  their  false  dogmatic  theology,  to  disen- 
chant them  with  it  and  make  them  cast  it  aside  and  come 
simply  to  ///-'//.  '  See,'  he  says  to  the  Jewish  doctors, 
'what  a  mess  you  make  of  it  with  your  learning,  and 
evidences,   and  orthodox  theology;  with   the  wisdom  of 


230  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


your  7tnse  men  and  the  understanding  of  your  priidmt 
men  !  You  can  do  nothing  with  them,  your  arms  break  in 
your  hands ;  fling  the  rubbish  away,  and  throw  yourselves 
upon  my  method  and  secret, — upon  me  !  Believe  that 
the  Father  hath  sent  me ;  he  that  rcceiveth  me  receiveth 
Him  that  sent  me.  If  any  mail  will  do  His  7uill,  he  shall 
know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of  God,  or  7uhethcr  I  have 
invented  it ! ' 

And  no  grand  performance  or  discovery  of  a  man's 
own  to  bring  him  thus  to  joy  and  peace,  but  an 
attachment  I  the  influence  of  One  full  of  grace  and  truth  ! 
An  influence,  w^hich  we  feel  we  know  not  how,  and 
which  subdues  us  we  know  not  when ;  which,  like  the 
wind,  breathes  where  it  lists,  passes  here,  and  does  not 
pass  there  !  Once  more,  then,  we  come  to  that  root 
and  ground  of  religion,  that  element  of  awe  and  gratitude 
which  fills  religion  with  emotion,  and  makes  it  other  and 
greater  than  morality, — the  not  ourselves.  We  did  not  make 
the  order  of  conduct,  or  provide  that  happiness  should  be- 
long to  it,  or  dispose  our  hearts  to  it.  The prepai-ation  of 
the  heart  in  man  is,  as  Israel  said,  frojn  the  Eternal ! 
We  did  not  invent  Jesus,  or  make  the  '  grace  and  truth'  of 
Jesus,  or  provide  that  happiness  should  belong  to  feeling 
them,  or  dispose  our  hearts  to  feel  them.  No  man  can 
come  to  me,  as  Jesus  said,  except  the  Father,  luhich  sent  me. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO   HIMSELF.    231 


draw  him!  So  the  revelation  of  Christ  in  the  New 
Testament  is  like  the  revelation  of  the  God  of  Israel  in 
the  Old,  in  being  the  revelation  of  '  the  Eternal  not 
ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness.'  It  is  like  it, 
and  has  the  same  power  of  religion  in  it. 

7. 
Now,  then,  v/e  see  what  tlie  doctrine,  I  came  forth  from 
God,  really  means.  We  see  how  far  it  has  any  likeness 
with  that  doctrine  of  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son, 
for  which  our  two  bishops  are  so  anxious  to  '  do  some- 
thing.' We  see  how  far  the  pseudo-scientific  language  of 
our  creeds,  about  persons,  and  substance,  and  godhead,  and 
co-equal,  and  co-eternal,  and  created,  and  begotten,  and 
proceeding,  has  anything  at  all  to  do  with  what  Jesus 
said  or  meant.  We  see  how  impossible  it  is  that  one 
should  concede  to  our  clerical  friends  what  they  assume 
to  be  beyond  dispute  : — that  the  so-called  Athanasian 
Creed  '  takes  the  facts  of  Christian  doctrine,  and  just 
arranges  them  sentence  after  sentence.'  We  see  how  wide 
of  the  mark  is  that  philosophical  clergyman,  who  writes 
to  the  Guardian  that  '  Our  Lord  unquestionably  annexes 
eternal  life  to  a  right  knowledge  of  the  Godhead,'  in 
imagining  that  when  Jesus  said  :  '  This  is  life  eternal,  to 
know  Thee  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom 


232  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

thou  hast  sent,'  Jesus  had  in  view  anything  at  all  like  the 
*  facts '  which  the  Athanasian  Creed  '  arranges,  sentence 
after  sentence.'  But  we  see  more  than  this.  We  see 
how  much  a  very  common  use  of  the  word/^////,  which 
gives  rise  to  false  notions  like  that  of  this  clergyman, 
needs  amending. 

For  it  is  constantly  assumed  that  there  is  an  opposi- 
tion between  faith  and  reason ;  and  that  those,  whom 
Christ  calls  to  believe  in  him,  he  calls  to  receive  a  doctrine 
puzzling  to  the  reasor?,  but  which,  if  adopted,  will  gradu- 
ally become  clear.  It  is  obvious  how  well  this  notion  of 
faith  suits  the  recommenders  of  such  doctrine  as  that 
which  the  Athanasian  Creed  'arranges,  sentence  after 
sentence,'  which  is  certainly  very  puzzling  to  the  reason. 
But  this  is  of  the  essence  of  faith,  it  is  said : — to  take  on 
trust  what  perplexes  the  reason.  Only  adopt  the  doctrine 
which  perplexes  the  reason,  be  a  Christian,  and  after- 
wards '  you  shall  know  of  the  doctrine  whether  it  be  of 
God.'  And  v/ith  this  is  connected  what  is  so  often  said 
in  the  Bible  about  '  receiving  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a 
little  child,'  about  '  babes  seeing  what  is  hidden  from 
the  wise  and  prudent.'  The  unlettered  believer  is,  in 
fact, — according  to  this  version  of  what  the  Bible  means 
to  say, — represented  in  the  Bible  as  a  better  judge  about 
a  thing  which  perplexes  the  reason   than   the  philoso- 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO   HIMSELF.    233. 

pher.  And  this  explains  the  disdain  v.ith  which  the 
possessors  of  gospel-truth.,  as  it  is  called,  are  apt  to  treat 
art,  and  literature,  and  science.  These  happy  men  are 
supposed  to  have,  by  faith,  a  certainty  in  matters  per- 
plexing in  the  highest  degree  to  the  reason,  which  the 
vaunted  exercise  of  the  reason  can  never  attain  to.  And 
as  with  faith  in  Christ,  so  with  faith  in  God  :  it  is  taking 
on  trust  something  perplexing  to  the  reason.  Texts  like  : 
They  that  seek  the  Eternal  understand  all  things^  and :  I  am 
wiser  than  the  aged  because  I  keep  Thy  commandments, 
mean,  that  we  are  better  off  and  see  clearer  than  men 
of  study  and  experience,  if,  in  spite  of  its  puzzHng  the 
reason,  we  accept  in  faith,  and  they  do  not,  some  truth 
like  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester's  '  blessed  truth  that  the 
God  of  the  universe  is  a  Person.' 

No  one  has  more  insisted  on  this  opposition  between 
faith  and  reason  than  a  writer  whom  we  can  never  name 
but  with  respect, —  Dr.  Newman.  '  The  moral  trial 
involved  in  faith,'  he  says, '  lies  in  the  siihinission  of  the 
reason  to  external  reaHties  partially  disclosed.'  And 
again  :  '  Faith  is,  in  its  very  nature,  the  acceptance  of 
what  our  reason  cannot  reach,  simply  and  absolutely  upon 
testimony.'  But  surely  faith  is,  in  its  very  nature  (with 
all  deference  be  it  spoken  ! ),  nothing  of  the  kind ;  else 
how  could  Christ  say  to  the  Jews  :  '  If  I  tell  you  the  truth, 


234  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


why  do  ye  not  believe  me  ? '  Surely  this  implies  that 
faith,  instead  of  being  a  submission  of  the  reason  to  what 
puzzles  it,  is  rather  a  recognition  of  what  is  perfectly 
clear,  if  we  will  attc?id  to  it.  We  cannot  always  attend, 
all  of  us  ;  and  here  is  the  not  ourselves  in  the  matter,  '  the 
grace  of  God.'  But  attention^  cleavings  attaching  oneself 
fast  to  what  is  undeniably  true, — this  is  what  the  faith  of 
Scripture,  '■  in  its  very  nature,'  is ;  and  not  the  submission 
of  the  reason  to  what  puzzles  it,  or  the  acceptance,  simply 
and  absolutely  upon  testimony,  of  what  our  reason  cannot 
reach.  And  all  that  the  Bible  says  of  bringing  to  nought 
the  wisdom  of  the  wise,  and  of  receiving  the  kingdom  of 
God  as  a  little  child,  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
believer's  acceptance  of  some  dogma  that  perplexes  the 
reason ;  it  is  aimed  at  those  who  sophisticate  a  very  simple 
thing,  religion,  by  importing  into  it  a  so-called  science 
with  which  it  has  nothing  to  do.  Jewish  theological 
learning,  the  system  of  divinity  of  the  Jewish  hierarchy, 
who  did  not  know  how  simple  a  thing  righteousness 
really  was,  and  who,  when  simple  souls  saw  it  in  Christ 
and  were  drawn  to  it,  cried  out :  '  This  people  that 
k7ioweth  not  thelaiv  are  cursed  I'  it  was  at  these,  and 
at  whatever  resembles  these,  that  Christ  aimed  the 
words  about  receiving  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little 
child. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    235 

And  the  '  marvellous  work  and  wonder '  about  the 
saving  truth  which  the  simple  receive  is,  not  that,  being 
difficult  to  the  reason,  it  is  yet  got  hold  of  by  the  un- 
lettered and  not  by  the  wise  ;  but  that,  being  so  simple,  it 
should  yet  be  so  immense,  important,  indispensable ; 
and  that,  being  so  immense,  important,  indispensable,  it 
should  yet  so  often  be  followed  by  quite  unlettered  people 
and  neglected  by  such  very  clever  ones.  The  clever 
are  attending  to  other  things, — things  which  do  task  the 
reason  and  intelligence,  and  in  which  the  unlettered  have 
no  skill  and  no  voice  ;  these  things  however  are,  at  most, 
only  one-fourth  of  life.  And  this  absurdity,  for  such  it 
really  is,  we  see  every  day ; — people  attending  to  the  diffi- 
cult science  of  matters  where  the  plain  practice  they  quite 
let  slip.  How  many  people  will  be  now  busy  with  Mr. 
Darwin's  new  book,  so  admirably  ingenious,  on  the  natural 
history  of  the  emotions,  who  yet  are  always  using  their 
own  emotions  in  the  worst  possible  manner  !  They  are 
eager  to  know  how  their  emotions  arose,  how  these  came 
to  express  themselves  as  they  do ;  yet  there  the  emotions 
now  are,  and  have  for  a  long  time  been,  and  the  first  thing 
for  any  sane  man  to  do  is  to  make  a  proper  use  of  them, 
and  to  know  how  to  make  a  proper  use  is  not  difficult ; — 
but  all  this  we  never  think  of,  but  investigate  zealously 
how  they  arose  !     Such  persons  are  just  like  those  learned 


236  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


inquirers  the  Cynic  laughed  at,  who  were  so  busy  about 
the  strayings  of  Ulysses,  so  inattentive  to  their  own. 

And  Israel's  greatness  was  that  he  was  so  impatient  of 
trifling  of  this  kind,  of  being  busy  with  one-fourth  of  life 
while  the  three-fourths,  conduct,  was  forgotten.  And  Israel 
boldly  said  :  '  They  that  seek  the  Eternal  understand  all 
things ; '  that  is,  they  are  occupied  with  conduct,  right- 
eousness, which  truly  is,  as  we  have  seen,  at  least  three- 
fourths  of  life,  and  which  Israel  thought  the  whole  of  it. 
They  have  a  hold  on  three-fourths  of  life,  while  it  may 
be  that  their  great,  clever,  and  accomplished  neighbours 
have  a  hold  on  only  one-fourth,  or  part  of  one-fourth,  of 
life.  Which  is  the  solid  and  sensible  man,  which  under- 
stands most,  which  lives  most?  Compare  a  Methodist 
day-labourer  with  some  dissolute,  gifted,  brilliant  grandee, 
who  thinks  nothing  of  him  ! — but  the  first  deals  suc- 
cessfully with  nearly  the  v/hole  of  life,  while  the  second 
is  all  abroad  in  it.  Compare  some  simple  and  pious 
monk,  at  Rome,  with  one  of  those  frivolous  men  of 
taste  whom  we  have  all  seen  there  ! — each  knows  no- 
thing of  what  interests  the  other ;  but  which  is  the  more 
vital  concern  for  a  man  :  conduct,  or  arts  and  antiquities  ? 

Nay,  and  however  false  his  science  and  Biblical  criti- 
cism, the  behever  who  applies  the  method  and  secret  of 
Jesus  has  a  width  of  range  and  sureness  of  foothold  in 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    237 


life,  which  even  the  best  scientific  and  literary  critic  of  the 
Bible,  who  applies  them  not,  is  without ;  because  the  first 
is  right  in  what  affects  three-fourths  of  life,  and  the 
second  in  what  affects  but  one- fourth,  or  even  but  one- 
eighth.  Each  has  a  secret  of  which  the  other,  who  has 
110  experience  of  it,  does  not  know  the  value ;  but  the 
value  of  the  learned  man's  secret  is  ridiculously  least. 
This,  I  say,  is  the  very  glory  and  marvel  of  the 
religion  of  the  true  Israel,  and  what  makes  this  religion, 
as  Jesus  called  it,  '  the  good  news  to  the  poor ; '  that  it 
■covers  nearly  the  whole  of  life,  and  yet  is  so  simple. 

The  only  right  contrast,  therefore,  to  set  up  between 
faith  and  reason  is,  not  that  faith  grasps  what  is  too  hard 
for  reason,  but  that  reason  does  not,  like  faith,  attend  to 
what  is  at  once  so  great  and  so  simple.  The  difficulty 
about  faith  is,  to  attend  to  what  is  very  simple  and  very 
important,  but  liable  to  be  pushed  by  more  showy  or 
tempting  matters  out  of  sight ;  the  maj'vel  about  faith  is, 
that  what  is  so  simple  should  be  so  all-sufiicing,  so  neces- 
sary, and  so  often  neglected.  And  faith  is  neither  the 
submission  of  the  reason,  nor  is  it  the  acceptance,  simply 
and  absolutely  upon  testimony,  of  what  reason  cannot 
reach.  Faith  is  :  the  being  able  to  cleave  to  a  power  of  good- 
ness appealing  to  our  higher  and  real  self  not  to  our  loicer 
and  appaj'eiit  self 


238  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

8. 

So  we  see  how  unlike  is  Christ's  own  doctrine  of  his 
being  the  Son  of  God  to  the  difficult  doctrine  of  the 
Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son,  as  the  Athanasian  Creed 
'  arranges  it,  sentence  after  sentence,'  and  in  the  form  in 
which  our  bishops  want  to  ""do  something '  for  it ;  as  unlike 
as  the  original  revelation  to  Israel  of  the  Eternal  that  loveth 
righteous7iess  is  to  '  the  blessed  doctrine  that  the  God  of  the 
universe  is  a  Person.'  And  we  see  how  the  clergymen 
who  write  to  the  Guai-dian  deceive  themselves,  when  they 
imagine  that  it  is  to  these  doctrines  of  our  bishops  that 
Christ  'unquestionably  attaches  eternal  life,'  and  how 
they  are  led  into  this  error  by  having  more  of  turn  for 
abstruse  reasoning  than  of  literary  experience.  They  are 
not  conversant  enough  with  the  many  different  ways  in 
which  men  think  and  speak,  so  as  to  be  able  to  distinguish 
rightly  between  them,  and  to  perceive  that  the  Bible  is 
literature ;  and  that  its  words  are  used,  like  the  words  of 
common  life  and  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  approximately, 
and  not  like  the  terms  of  science,  adequately. 

And  if  they  fall  into  mistakes  about  words  applied  to 
the  Father  and  the  Son,  by  thus  making  them  scientific, 
how  much  more  do  they  fall  into  mistakes  when  they 
extend  this  treatment  to  words  applied  to  the  Holy  Ghost. 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    239 


We  have  seen  how  the  word  Fncuvia,  just  by  reason  of 
its  inward  and  infinite  character,  was  much   employed 
by  Jesus  for  his  method  of  inwardness  and  of  deHverance 
from  binding  traditions  and  formulas;  and  how,  since 
Holy  Ghost  has  become  to  us  a  formula,  just  as   God 
and  righteousness  were  to  the  Jews,  to  get  the  force  of 
Christ's  use  of  the  word    *  Pneuma,'   we   ought   to   re- 
translate the  word  for  ourselves,  and  to  call  it,  for  a  time 
at  any  rate,  rather  iiiflue7ice,  i7ituition,  or  some  such  name. 
For  it  was  thus  that  Jesus  himself  used  it.  When  Jesus 
was  going  away,  above  all,  and  his  disciples  were  to  be 
thrown   on  themselves  and   left   to   use   his  method  of 
inwardness   more    deeply   and   thoroughly,   not   having 
him  to  go  to,— then  they  would  find,  he  said,  a  new  power 
come   to   their  help ;  a  power  of  insight  such  as  they 
had  never   had   before,    and   which  was   none  of  their 
making,  but  came  from  God  as  Jesus  did,  and  said  nothing 
of  itself,  but  only  Avhat  God  said  or  Jesus  said ;  a  '  Para- 
clete,'  or  reinforcement   working    in   aid   of  God   and 
Jesus  :  even  the  Spirit  of  Truth.     While  Jesus  was  with    V 
them,  the  disciples  had  lived  in  contact  with  aletheia,      \ 
or  reality ;  and  they  were  promised  now  an  intuition   of 
reality  within  themselves. 

Now,  will  it  be  believed,  that  the  Athanasian  Creed, 
and  our   bishops,  and  the  clergymen  who  write   to  the 


240  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Guardian^  and  dogmatic  theology  in  general,  should 
have  imagined  that  Christ  here  meant  to  convey  to 
us  the  'blessed  doctrine'  that  this  Spirit  of  truth, 
too,  '  is  a  Person  '  ?  The  force  of  metaphysical  talent 
out-running  literary  experience  could  really,  we  say, 
no  further  go  !  The  Muse,  who  visited  Hesiod  when 
he  was  tending  his  sheep  on  the  side  of  Helicon,  and 
'  breathed  into  him  a  divine  voice,  and  taught  him 
the  things  to  come  and  the  former  things,'  might  every 
bit  as  well  be  made,  with  much  display  of  meta- 
physical apparatus,  '  a  Person.'  The  influence  which 
visited  Hesiod  was  a  7'cal  one  , — that  is  as  much  meta- 
physics as  we  can  without  error,  in  a  case  of  this  sort, 
apply.     Whoever  applies  more,  falls  into  absurdity. 

The  '  Spirit  of  truth,'  indeed,  which  rejoiced  the  wise 
poet  of  Ascra,  was  the  Muse  of  art  and  science,  the 
Muse  of  the  gifted  few,  the  Muse  who  brings  to  the 
ingenious  and  learned  among  mankind  '  a  forgetful- 
ness,'  as  Hesiod  sings,  'of  evils  and  a  truce  from  cares.' 
It  was  the  same  Muse,  no  doubt,  who  visits  the  Bishop  of 
Gloucester  when  he  sits  in  his  palace  meditating  on  per- 
sonality, or  sometimes  perhaps,  in  his  lighter  hours,  on 
political  economy.  The  Paraclete  that  Jesus  promised, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  the  ]Mu5e  of  righteousness  ;  the 
Muse  of  the  work-day,  care-crossed,  toil-stained  millions 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    241 

of  men, — the  Muse  of  humanity.  To  all  who  live,  for 
all  that  concerns  three-fourths  of  life,  this  divine  Muse 
offers  '  a  forge tfulness  of  evils  and  a  truce  from  cares.' 
That  is  why  it  is  far  more  real,  and  far  greater,  than  the 
Muse  of  Hesiod ;  not  from  any  metaphysical  personality. 

9- 

But  the  whole  centre  of  gravity  of  the  Christian 
religion,  in  the  popular  as  well  as  in  the  so-called  orthodox 
notion  of  it,  is  placed  in  Christ's  having,  by  his  death 
in  satisfaction  for  man's  sins,  performed  the  contract 
originally  passed  in  the  Council  of  the  Trinity,  and  having 
thus  enabled  the  magnified  and  non-natural  Man  in 
heaven,  who  is  the  God  of  theology  and  of  the  multitude 
alike,  to  consider  his  justice  satisfied,  and  to  allow  his 
mercy  to  go  forth  on  all  who  heartily  believe  that  Christ 
has  paid  their  debt  for  them.  Now  we  have  seen  how  that 
whole  structure  of  materialising  mythology,  which  the 
Bible  is  supposed  to  deliver,  and  in  which  this  conception 
of  the  Atonement^  as  it  is  called,  holds  the  central  place, 
drops  away  and  disappears  as  the  Bible  comes  to  be 
better  known.  The  true  centre  of  gravity  of  the 
Christian  religion  is  in  the  method  2in.d  the  secret  of  Jesus, 
approximating,  in  their  application,  ever   closer  to  the 

R 


242  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


epieikeia^  the  sweet  reasonableness  and  unerring  sureness 
of  Jesus  himself.  But,  as  the  method  of  Jesus  led  up 
to  his  secret,  and  his  secret  was  dying  to  '  the  life  in  this 
world  '  and  living  to  'the  eternal  life,'  both  his  method  and 
his  secret  culminated  in  his  '  perfecting '  on  the  cross, 
which  he  himself  foresaw  and  foretold. 

The  miracle  of  the  corporeal  resurrection  ruled  the 
minds  of  those  who  have  reported  Christ's  sayings  for  us ; 
and  their  report,  how  he  foretold  his  death,  cannot 
always  be  entirely  accepted.  One  of  them  alleges  him 
to  have  foretold  it  by  pointing  to  his  body  and  saying  : 
Destroy  this  temple^  and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up  / 
Now,  this  is  certainly  an  instance  of  the  retrospective 
pressure  exercised  on  words  of  Jesus  by  the  established 
belief  in  the  resurrection.  He  had  said  of  the  Temple 
at  Jerusalem  :  There  shall  not  be  left  of  it  one  stone  iipoji 
another.  He  had  said  of  himself  and  this  much- 
reverenced  Temple  :  There  stafideth  here  One  greater  than 
the  Temple.  He  had  said  he  should  be  put  to  death, 
and  the  death  of  the  worst  malefactors,  crucifixion. 
He  had  said  that  he  should  be  thus  perfected  after  he  had 
worked  but  a  little  while  longer  :  /  do  cures  to-day  and 
tfl-7>iorrow,  and  the  third  day  I  shall  he  perfected.  Nothing 
more  was  needed.  The  miraculous  prediction  concerning 
'  the  temple  of  his  body'  was  ready  to  the  miracle-writer's 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.    243 

hand  !     Jesus  had  said  :  Dcst7-oy  this  temple  and  in  three 
days  1 7viU  raise  it  iip  ! 

In  sayings  of  this  kind,  the  internal  evidence  is  all- 
important.  Now,  the  sure  clue  of  internal  evidence 
to  follow,  in  tracing  any  words  of  Jesus  about  his  death 
and  rising  again,  is  the  clue  given  by  the  ideal  ot  the 
stricken  Servant  of  God  in  the  fifty-third  chapter  of 
Isaiah.  This  ideal,  as  we  have  seen,  Jesus  had  adopted 
and  elevated  as  the  true  ideal  of  Israel's  Saviour ;  he 
had  corrected  by  it  the  favourite  popular  ideals  he 
found  regnant.  And,  in  this  ideal  of  the  stricken  Servant 
of  God,  the  notion  of  sacrifice  is,  that  this  lover  of  right- 
eousness falls  because  of  a  state  of  iniquity  and  wicked- 
ness which  he  has  had  no  share  in  making,  and  as  the 
only  remedy  for  it.  The  notion  of  redemption  is,  that  by 
endurance  to  the  end,  and  by  his  death  crowning  his  life, 
he  establishes  all  seekers  after  good  in  their  allegiance  to 
good,  enables  them  to  follow  it  and  to  reach  true  life 
through  it.  Finally,  the  notion  of  resurrection  is,  that  his 
death  makes  an  epoch  of  victory  for  him  and  his  cause, 
which  thenceforward  live  and  reign  indestructibly.  He 
had  done  no  violmce,  neither  was  any  deceit  in  his  mottth; 
he  was  bruised  for  our  i?iiqtnties,  the  Eternal  hath  laid  on 
him  the  iniquity  of  us  all ; — there  is  the  sacrifice.  With 
his  stripes    we   are  healed; — there   is   the   redemption. 


244  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


But :  Whefi  he  hath  made  his  life  an  offering  for  sin, 
he  shall  see  his  seed,  he  shall  pi'olong  his  days,  and  the 
pleasure  of  the  Eterjial  shall  prosper  in  his  hand ; — there, 
at  the  end  of  it  all,  is  the  resurrection. 

And  just  these  stages  we  find  again  in  Jesus. 
Which  of  yo2i  convict eth  me  of  sin  ?  he  asked  the  Jews  ; 
nevertheless  :  The  Son  of  Man  must  suffer  many  things 
and  he  rejected  of  this  generation,  the  Son  of  Man  must 
be  lifted  up ; — there  is  the  sacrifice.  Except  a  grain  of 
corn  fall  into  the  groimd  and  die,  it  ahideth  alone;  the 
Son  of  Man  came  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  ma7iy ; — 
there  is  the  redemption.  But:  If  the  grain  of  corn  die, 
it  Ijringeth  forth  much  fruit ;  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from 
the  earth,  will  dratv  all  men  unto  ine ;  if  I  go  not  away 
the  Spirit  of  truth  will  not  come  unto  you,  but  if  I  depart 
I  will  send  him  imto  you,  and  when  he  is  come  he  will 
convince  the  world  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  arid  of  judgment ; 
— there,  there  is  the  resurrection  and  triumph  ! 

The  use  by  Jesus  of  the  words  life  and  death  must  on 
no  account,  however,  be  limited  to  this  his  cmcifixion 
and  after-triumph,  though  in  these,  no  doubt,  his  dying 
and  living  culminated.  Yet  both  here,  and  always  in  his 
use  of  them,  they  are  to  be  referred  to  his  secret :  '  He 
that  loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  he  that  hateth  his  life  in 
this  7aorld  shall  keep  it  unto  life  eternal ;  renounce  thyself y 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.     245 

and  take  up  thy  cross  daily  ^  and  follow  Me  ! '  Long  before 
his  signal  Crucifixion  Jesus  had  died,  by  taking  up  daily 
that  cross  which  his  disciples,  after  his  daily  example, 
were  to  take  up  also.  '  Therefore  doth  my  Father  love 
me,'  he  says,  '  because  I  lay  do7vn  my  life  that  1 7?tay  take 
it  again'  He  had  risen  to  life  long  before  his  crowning 
Resurrection,  risen  to  life  in  what  he  calls  '  my  joy^ 
which  he  desired  to  see  fulfilled  in  his  disciples  also ; 
'  my  Joy,  to  have  kept  my  Father's  commandment  and 
abide  in  his  love.' 

Nay,  and  there  is  no  more  powerful  testimony  to  Christ's 
real  use  of  the  words  life  and  death,  than  a  famous  text,' 
borrowed  from  Jewish  Aberglaube,  which  popular  Chris- 
tianity has  wrested  in  support  of  its  tenet  of  a  physical 
resurrection  at  the  Messiah's  second  advent.  Whatever 
we  may  think  of  the  narrative  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus, 
we  need  have  no  difficulty  in  believing  that  Jesus  really 
did  say  to  the  brother  or  sister  of  a  dead  disciple  :  '  Thy 
brother  shall  rise  again  ! '  and  that  the  mourner  replied  :  '  I 
know  that  he  shall  rise  again  at  the  resurrection  of  the  last 
day.'  For  the  answer  which  follows  has  the  certain 
stamp  of  Jesus  :  '  /  a7n  the  resurrection  and  the  life ;  he 
that  helirc'cth  on  me,  though  he  die,  shall  live,  and  luhoso- 
(S'cr  livcth  and  believeth  on  me  shall  never  die'  Now, 
Martha   believed  already  in  the  resurrection  of  Jewish 


246  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


and  Christian  Abcrglaiibe^ — the  resurrection  according  to 
the  Book  of  Daniel  and  the  Book  of  Enoch,  the  resurrection 
of  the  last  day,  when  '  they  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the 
earth  shall  awake,  some  to  everlasting  life,  and  some  to 
shame  and  everlasting  contempt.'  But  Jesus  corrects  her 
Aberglauhe^  by  telling  her  that  her  brother  is  not  dead  at 
all ;  and  his  words,  out  of  which  the  story  of  the 
miracle  very  likely  grew,  do  really  make  the  miracle  quite 
unnecessary.  *  He  that  has  believed  on  me  and  had  my 
secret,'  says  Jesus,  '  though  his  body  die  to  the  life  of 
this  world,  still  lives ;  for  such  an  one  had  died  to  the  life 
of  this  world  already,  and  found  true  life,  life  out  of 
himself,  life  in  the  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness,  by 
doing  so.' 

Just  in  the  same  way,  again,  in  his  promise  to  see  his 
disciples  again  after  his  crucifixion  and  to  take  up  his 
abode  with  them,  Jesus  corrects,  for  those  who  have  eyes 
to  read,  he  corrects  in  the  clearest  and  most  decisive  way, 
those  very  errors  with  which  our  common  material 
conceptions  of  life  and  death  have  made  us  invest  his 
death  and  resurrection.  '  Yet  a  little  while,'  he  says, 
'■  and  the  world  seetli  me  no  more ;  but  ye  see  me, 
because  I  live,  and  ye  shall  live  too.  He  that  hath  my 
commandments  and  keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth 
me ;  and  him  that  loveth  me  I  will  love,  and  will  manifest 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS   TO  HIMSELF.     247 

myself  to  him'  Jude  naturally  objects  :  '  How  is  it  that 
thou  wilt  manifest  thyself  to  us  and  not  to  the  world  ?  ' 
And  Jesus  answers  :  *  If  a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep 
my  word,  and  my  Father  will  love  him,  and  ive  will  come 
unto  him  and  ??iake  our  abode  with  him'  Therefore  the 
manifestation  of  himself  he  speaks  of  is  nothing  external 
and  material.  It  is, — like  the  manifestation  of  God  to  him 
that  ordereth  his  conversation  right,  the  internal  life  and 
joy  in  keeping  the  commandments, — it  is  the  life  for  the 
disciples  of  Christ,  in  and  with  Christ,  in  keeping  the 
commandments  of  God ;  those  commandments,  which  had 
at  last  in  their  true  scope  been  made  known  to  men, 
but  solely  through  Christ's  method  and  through  his 
secret. 

10. 
Thus,  then,  did  Jesus  seek  to  transform  the  immense 
materialising  Aberglaube  into  which  the  religion  of  Israel 
had  fallen,  and  to  spiritualise  it  at  all  points ;  while  in  his 
method  and  secret  he  supplied  a  sure  basis  for  practice. 
Eut  to  follow  him  entirely  there  was  needed  an  epieikeia, 
an  unfailing  sweetness  and  an  unerring  perception,  like  his 
own.  It  was  much  if  his  disciples  got  firm  hold  on  his 
method  and  his  secret ;  and  if  they  transmitted  fragments 
enough  of  his  lofty  spiritualism,  to  make  it  in  the  fulness 


248  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


of  time  discernible,  and  to  make  it  at  once  and  from 
the  first  in  a  large  degree  serviceable.  Who  can  read 
in  the  Gospels  the  comments  preserved  to  us,  both  of 
disciples  and  of  others,  on  what  he  said,  and  not  feel 
that  Jesus  must  have  known,  while  he  nevertheless 
persevered  in  saying  them,  how  things  like  :  '  The  bread 
which  1  will  grce  is  my  flesh  for  the  life  of  the  world^  or  : 
'  /  will  not  leave  you  co?? for  Hess,  I  will  come  tmto  you^' 
would  be  misapprehended  by  those  who  heard  them  ? 

But,  indeed,  Jesus  himself  tells  us  that  he  knew  and 
foresaw  this.  With  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  of  truth 
which  should,  after  his  departure,  work  in  his  disciples  first, 
then  in  the  world,  and  which  should  convince  the  world 
of  sin  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment,  and  finally 
transform  it,  we  are  all  familiar.  But  how  little  we  remark 
the  impressive  words,  uttered  to  the  crowd  around  him 
only  a  little  while  before,  and  of  far  wider  appHcation  than 
the  reporter  imagined  :  '  Yet  a  little  while  is  the  light  with 
you;  walk  while  ye  have  the  light,  lest  the  dark?iess  overtake 
you  unaiuares  !^  The  real  application  cannot  have  been  to 
the  unconverted  only ; — a  call  to  the  unconverted  to  make 
haste  because  their  chance  of  conversion  would  soon,  with 
Christ's  departure,  be  gone.  No,  converts  came  in  far 
thicker  after  Christ's  departure  than  in  his  life.  The  words 
are  for  the  converted  also.   It  is  as  if  Jesus  foresaw  the  want 


TESTIMONY  OF  JESUS  TO  HIMSELF.    249 

of  his  sweet  reasonableness  which  he  could  not  leave,  to 
help  his  method  and  his  secret  which  he  could  leave  ; — 
as  if  he  foresaw  his  words  misconstrued,  his  rising  to 
eternal  life  turned  into  a  physical  miracle,  the  advent  of 
the  Spirit  of  truth  turned  into  a  scene  of  thaumaturgy, 
Peter  proving  his  Master's  Messiahship  from  a  Psalm 
that  does  not  prove  it,  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles 
word-splitting  like  a  pedantic  Rabbi,  the  most  beautiful 
soul  among  his  own  reporters  saddling  him  with  meta- 
physics;— foresaw  the  growth  of  creeds,  the  growth  of 
dogma,  and  so,  through  all  the  confusion  worse  con- 
founded of  councils,  schoolmen,  and  confessions  of  faith, 
down  to  our  own  twin  Bishops  of  Winchester  and 
Gloucester  bent  on  '  doing  something '  for  the  honour  of 
the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal  Son  ! 


2SO  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 


THE   EARLY   WITNESSES. 


Our  object  in  this  essay  has  never  been  to  argue 
against  miracles.  Even  with  Lourdes  and  La  Salette 
before  our  eyes,  we  may  yet  say  that  miracles  are 
doomed ;  they  will  drop  out,  like  fairies  or  witchcraft, 
from  among  the  matters  which  serious  people  believe. 
Our  one  object  is  to  save  the  revelation  in  the  Bible  from 
being  made  solidary,  as  our  Comtist  friends  say,  with 
miracles  ;  from  being  attended  to  or  held  cheap  just  in 
proportion  as  miracles  are  attended  to  or  are  held  cheap. 
In  like  manner,  nay  far  more,  our  object  is  not,  and 
never  can  be,  to  pick  holes  in  the  apostles  and  reporters 
of  Jesus.  But  much  which  they  say  cannot  stand  ;  our  one 
object  is  to  hinder  people  from  making  Jesus  solidary 
with  this,  and  with  his  reporters'  and  apostles'  character 
for  infallibility.  To  this  extent,  and  to  this  only,  we  are 
brought  at  moments  into  collision  with  miracles,  into 
collision  with  the  disciples  of  Jesus  and  with  the  writers 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  251 

of  the  New  Testament.  We  have  to  show  that,  tlie 
men  being  what  and  when  and  whence  they  were,  the 
miracles  would  certainly  grow  up  for  them  around  and 
in  the  wake  of  Jesus. 

How  did  Christ's  words  :  '  /  will  see  you  again,  I  go  to 
prepare  a  place  for  your  grow  into  the  legend, — so  beautiful, 
and  round  which  have  for  centuries  gathered  such  sacred 
feehngs  and  aspirations,  yet  a  legend, — of  his  corporeal 
resuiTection  and  ascension  ?  How  ?  Why,  Herod's 
first  words,  when  after  the  execution  of  John  the  Baptist 
he  heard  of  Jesus,  were  :  '  It  is  John  the  Baptist ;  he  is 
risen  from  the  dead!'  In  such  an  atmosphere  of  belief 
were  the  disciples  living,  when  their  loss  of  Jesus,  the 
greatest  loss  that  ever  befel  men,  happened.  All  his  dis- 
course, when  he  was  with  them,  had  nm  on  life  and 
death, — apparent  death,  enduring  life  ;  and  how  many  are 
the  stories  of  the  survivors,  in  an  atmosphere  of  belief 
like  that  of  those  Palestine  times,  refusing  to  believe  in 
the  death  of  a  leader  even  far  less  precious  to  them,  full 
of  reports  of  his  reappearance  in  this  place  and  that 
place,  feeding  themselves  on  the  promise  of  his  trium- 
phant return!  How  many  thousands  at  this  moment, 
in  Persia,  refuse  to  credit  the  death  of  the  Bab,  their  Gate 
of  life,  executed  some  years  ago  !  assert  that  he  will 
return,  that  he  has  been  seen,  that  they  have  seen  him  ! 


252  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 


But  the  reporters  of  Jesus  were  not  as  others ;  they 
were  infalHble  ?  So  infallible,  that  they  report  themselves, 
when  Jesus  reappeared,  after  all  his  labours  to  transform 
and  spiritualise  for  them  the  old  Jewish  ideal, — they 
report  themselves  to  have  met  him  with  the  inquiry  : 
Lord^  wilt  t/wu  at  this  time  restore  the  kingdom  to 
Israel !  But  the  Holy  Ghost  had  not  then  been  given? 
And  after  the  Holy  Ghost  was  given,  we  find  them 
with  one  voice  asserting  that  in  the  lifetime  of  that 
generation  should  come  Christ's  second  advent  and 
the  end  of  the  world  ;  Peter  falling  back  into  Judaism, 
so  that  Paul  had  to  withstand  him  to  the  face  because 
he  was  to  be  blamed,  and  Paul  himself  proving  sal- 
vation to  be  by  Jesus,  from  seed,  in  the  promise  to 
Abraham,  being  used  in  the  singular !  That  it  is  im- 
possible the  disciples  of  Jesus  should  have  been,  alone 
of  all  the  disciples  in  the  world,  infallible,  that  it  is  begging 
the  question  to  say  they  were  infallible,  need  not  be  made 
out ;  it  is  conspicuous,  on  the  face  of  their  own  showing 
of  themselves,  that  they  were  not  infallible.  And  well  it 
is  that  it  should  be  so ;  for  this  favourite  Protestant 
doctrine  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Bible  wTiters,  inherited, 
indeed,  from  the  Fathers  along  with  that  of  the  infalli^ 
bility  of  the  Church,  but  kept  and  extolled  by  Protestants 
as  the  true  single  anchor  to  ride  at,  whereas  the  other 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  253 


was  rotten, — this  doctrine  involves  Christianity  in  dangers 
quite  as  serious  as  its  discarded  rival  does. 

But  it  was  not  for  nothing  that  the  Apostles  had  lived 
with  Jesus ;  or  even,  in  the  case  of  a  great  religious  spirit 
like  Paul,  lived  in  his  time,  lived  in  his  country,  had 
his  presence  and  words  near  and  fresh  to  them.  And,  un  - 
true  and  dangerous  as  is  the  popular  Protestant  doctrine 
of  the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Apostles,  making  tliem 
infallible,  and  vouchsafed  no  more  to  anyone  after  the 
apostles  were  gone,  yet  it  rests  on  a  true  perception  of 
the  vast  distance  which  separates  them  from  after-writers 
on  Christianity,  from  the  Fathers  as  from  Luther  and 
Calvin,  all  alike.  This  they  owe  to  their  contact  witli 
Jesus  ;  or,  in  Paul's  case,  to  their  nearness  to  him.  The 
impression  of  him  was  too  fresh  and  vivid,  his  method  and 
secret  still  had  too  firmly  the  prominence  he  had  given 
them,  the  atmosphere  of  his  sweet  reasonableness  still  hung 
round  his  disciples  too  much,  to  permit  of  the  deep  con- 
fusions and  misunderstandings  of  after-times.  There  is 
no  pleasure  in  proving  that  the  Apostles  sometimes  made 
mistakes ;  but  to  trace  in  the  Apostles  the  reproduction 
of  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  is  one  of  the  most 
delightful  of  tasks.  And  since  to  show  such  reproduction 
of  Jesus  in  his  followers  throws  light  on  what  we  have 
said  of  Jesus   himself,  and  confirms  it,  we  will  permit 


254  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

ourselves  to  do  this  very  briefly.  And  we  will  show  it, 
first  and  above  all,  in  the  case  of  the  three  great  witnesses 
to  him  in  the  New  Testament, — Peter,  Paul,  and  the  writer 
who  is  called,  properly  or  improperly,  St.  John. 


To  begin  with  St.  Peter.  The  First  Epistle  of  St.  Peter 
commends  itself  as  much,  one  may  say,  as  the  genuine 
work  of  the  author  whose  name  it  bears,  as  the  Second 
Epistle  bespeaks  itself  the  contrary.  And,  except  for  the 
one  strange  passage  about  the  spirits  in  prison  and  Noah's 
flood,  at  the  end  of  the  third  chapter, — where  the  meaning 
which  was  in  the  writer's  mind  is  probably  now  irrecover- 
able for  us, — there  is  shed  over  this  whole  production  more, 
perhaps,  of  the  epieikeia,  or  what  we  call  the  sweet  reason- 
ableness, of  Christ,  than  over  any  other  epistle  we  possess. 
Very  much  this  is  due  to  its  simplicity,  to  the  unambitious 
nature  of  its  topics  and  of  its  treatment  of  them ;  because, 
clearly,  the  application  of  prophecy,  the  adjustment  of 
the  old  ideal  of  Israel  to  the  new,  the  management  of 
the  ideas  of  life  and  death,  of  justification,  and  the  like, — 
in  all  of  which  the  epieikeia  of  Christ  himself  shone  forth 
so  matchlessly, — are  much  harder  to  treat  with  the  winning 
simplicity  and  limpid  intuitiveness  which  make  the  charm 
of  epieikeia,  than  conduct  itself  is. 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  255 

And  conduct  is  what  this  epistle  is  concerned  with, 
almost  from  the  first  line  to  the  last.  '  Your  good  conver- 
sation in  Christ ; '  '  As  He  who  called  you  is  Jioly,  be  ye 
also  holy  in  all  your  conversation  ;' — this  is  the  head  and 
front  of  the  matter  with  the  writer.  Holiness  is  but,  as 
we  have  said,  a  deep  and  finished  righteousness.  And 
the  method  for  it  is  the  method  of  Jesus  : — the  inward 
man  awakened,  conscience.  ^  Born  again  through  the 
word  of  God  that  liveth  and  abideth ; '  '  The  hidden 
man  of  the  heart ; '  '  Having  a  good  conscience ; ' — again  and 
again  this  word  'conscience,'  so  strange  to  the  Old 
Testament,  appears.  And  the  two  great  groups  of  faults 
which,  in  a  rough  way,  do  sufficiently  comprehend  all 
conduct,  are  again,  as  they  were  by  Jesus,  marked  as  the 
matter  to  be  dealt  with  : — faults  of  temper  and  faults  of 
sensuality.  '  Not  conformed  to  the  former  lusts  of  your 
time  of  ignorance ; '  '  The  time  past  may  suffice  us  to 
have  wrought  the  will  of  the  Gentiles,  having  walked 
in  dissoluteness,  lusts,  excess  of  wine,  rei>ellings  ; '  '  Abstain 
iiova  fleshly  lusts,  which  war  against  the  soul ; '  '  Be  tem- 
perate, be  sober ; ' — this  is  for  faults  of  sensuality.  '  Putting 
away  all  malice,  and  all  deceit,  and  iiisincerities ,  and 
envies,  and  all  evil-speakiiigs ' ;  'Be  of  one  mind,  feel  with 
one  another,  love  as  brethren  ' ;  "'Be tender-hearted,  humble- 
minded;^  'The  incorruptible  of  that  mild  and  quiet  spirit 


256  I.ITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


which  is,  in  the  sight  of  God,  of  great  price;'— this  is 
for  the  faults  of  temper. 

So  far  the  '  method '  of  Jesus  ;  and  next  for  his  '  secret ' 
of  self-renouncement,  of  dying  to  our  apparent  self, 
to  our  life  in  this  world.  '  Even  though  ye  suffer  for 
righteousness,  happy  are  ye  ! '  '  For  to  suffer i?ig  ye  are 
mlled,  because  Christ  also  suffered  for  our  sakes,  leaving 
us  an  ensample  that  we  should  follow  his  steps ; '  '  As 
Christ  suffered  in  the  flesh,  arm  yourselves  likewise  with 
the  same  mind,  for  he  that  stffers  in  the  flesh  is  freed froju 
sin  ; '  '  Elected  of  God  unto  obedience  and  sprinkling  with 
the  blood  of  Christ.'  And  nowhere  does  the  jo}\  which 
with  Christ  is  the  great  test  and  sanction  of  his  method 
and  secret,  come  out  fuller  and  stronger  than  in  this 
epistle.  '  But  ye  are  a  chosen  race,  a  royal  priesthood,  a 
holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people,  to  tell  forth  the  excellences 
of  Him  who  called  you  out  of  darkness  into  his  marvel- 
lous light  I' 

The  belief  in  the  bodily  resurrection  of  Christ,  and 
the  expectation  of  his  second  Advent  in  the  life-time  of 
the  generation  then  living,  are  signal  supports  to  the 
writer's  mind.  But  our  popular  notion  of  the  Atonement^ 
— Christ's  death  represented  as  a  satisfaction  of  God's 
offended  justice, — does  not  yet  appear.  The  governing 
idea  of  the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  adopted  by  Jesus 
himself,  is  still  faithfully  preserved.     Christ  died  for  his 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  257 

people  'to  redeem  them,  from  their  vam  conversation 
dehvered  by  tradition  ; '  Christ  suffered,  '  in  order  that  we, 
dying  to  sins,  might  Hve  to  righteousness.' 

3- 

Next  we  come  to  St.  Paul ;  but  elsewhere  ^  Ave  have 
spoken  so  fully  of  St.  Paul's  theology  that  we  shall  l)e 
very  brief  here.  Need  we  say  that  righteousness  is  its 
ground-thought, — real  righteousness  discerned  to  be  sucli 
by  means  of  a  change  of  the  inner  man  ?  '  Circumcision 
is  nothing,  and  uncircumcision  is  nothing,  but  the  keepiiii:^ 
of  the  commandments  of  God'-  Righteousness  is  the  end 
and  aim.  This  to  begin  with ;  then,  in  the  words :  '  I 
exercise  myself  to  have  a  conscience  void  of  offence  towards 
God  and  men  continually,'  we  find  ourselves  in  the  method 
of  Jesus.  '  Let  every  man  prove  by  experience  his  own 
work,  and  then  shall  he  have  rt]Q\(img  in  himself  alone 
and  not  in  another  \ '  '  Prove  all  things  by  experience^ 
keep  what  is  good  ; '  '  Prove  by  experience  what  things  are 
excellent ; '  '  Able  to  prove  by  experience  w^hat  is  that  good 
and  perfect  and  acceptable  will  of  God.'  All  this  points 
to  inward  appraisal,  the  method  of  inwardness,  the  indi- 
vidual conscience.  Jesus  has  given  a  new  faculty  of  judg- 
ing things,  light :  '  All  things  that  are  convicted  as  wrong 
1  See  St.  Paul  and  Protestantism. 


258  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

are  shown  to  be  what  they  really  are  by  the  light;  for  what- 
ever shows  things  to  be  what  they  really  are,  is  light. 
Wherefore  he  saith  :  Awake  thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise 
from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light !  ^  This  is 
the  new  power  of  the  method  of  Jesus,  of  conscience. 
And  no  one  has  so  well  described  as  St.  Paul  the 
working  of  conscience  as  first  set  going  by  Christianity. 
*  Commending  ourselves,  by  the  manifesting  of  the 
7'eality,  to  ei'ery  human  consciefice  I '  '  The  hidden  things 
of  a  man^s  heart  are  made  manifest'  he  says ;  '  all 
that  he  hears  convicts  him,  sifts  him  to  the  bottom; 
he  falls  on  his  face  and  worships,  declaring  that  God 
is  indeed  here  ! '  Nor  does  St.  Paul  fail  to  specify 
again  and  again  the  matter  wherewith  conscience  deals  : 
— ^the  works  of  the  fleshy  as  he  calls  them;  'fornica- 
tion, uncleanness,  dissoluteness,  idol-worship,  witch- 
craft, hatreds,  strife,  jealousy,  angers,  contentions, 
divisions,  sects,  envies,  drunkenness,  revellings,  and  such 
like.'  They  are  manifest,  says  he,  and  so  they  are;  for 
they  roughly  cover  what  all  the  Corinthians,  to  whom  he 
wrote,  understood  by  conduct., — the  whole  body  of  faults 
connected  with  our  two  great  primary  instincts,  faults 
of  temper  and  faults  of  sensuaHty.      Elsewhere,  to  the 

'  Eph,,  V,  13,  14.  The  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians  cannot  well  be 
altogether  Paul's,  but  it  is  full  of  Pauline  things,  and  this  is  certainly 
among  them. 


THE  EARLY    WITNESSES.  259 

Colossians,  he  even  seems  to  follow, — but  still  in  an  in- 
formal, approximative  manner,  such  as  one  uses  when  one 
speaks  of  matters  so  familiar  that  to  be  precise  is  pedan- 
tic,— he  even  seems  to  actually  follow  this  division,  and 
to  throw  faults  of  conduct  into  two  groups  which  nearly 
correspond  to  it.  Finally,  to  the  works  of  the  flesh, 
which  are  thus  evidently  conduct  wrong,  he  opposes  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit,  which  are  as  evidently  conduct  right : 
'  Love,  joy,  peace,  patience,  kindness,  goodness,  faith, 
mildness,  self-control'  By  following  the  inward  method 
of  Jesus,  he  tells  us,  we  perceive  that  here  is  the  subject- 
matter  of  righteousness,  that  this  is  what  keeping  the  com- 
mandments of  God  really  is. 

But  that  the  '  secret '  of  Jesus  was  applied  to  this 
subject-matter  by  Paul,  who  can  doubt,  when  that  secret 
is  the  very  heart  of  Paul's  theology,  and  he  came  to  view 
the  crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Christ  altogether  in 
connexion  with  it?  In  elevating  as  his  sum  of  know- 
ledge 'Jesus  Christ  crucified^'  his  first  thought  was  to 
insist  on  *  the  scandal  of  the  cross '  as  the  strength,  not 
the  weakness,  of  Christianity ;  to  enthrone  resolutely  Jesus 
Christ's  new  Messias-ideal  of  the  suffering  servant,  in 
defiance  of  the  Jews'  old  Messias-ideal  of  a  triumphing 
conqueror.  His  second  thought  was  the  'secret'  It 
is  to  be  noted  that  the  secret  of  Jesus  takes  a  two-fold 


26o  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

form  in  Paul's  writings,  a  simple  and  a  mystic  one.     The 
simple  form  is  given  in  such  a  passage  as  this  :  '  If  ye 
live  after  the  flesh  ye  shall  die,  but  if  through  the  spirit 
ye  mortify  the  doings  of  the  body,  ye  shall  live.'     Here 
is  the  same  easily  intelligible  play  on  the  ideas  of  life 
and  death  which  Jesus  himself  used.    But  Paul's  favourite 
form  for  the  secret  was  a  more  mystic  one,  in  which 
Christ's  death  upon  the  cross  stood  for  .death  in  general, 
and  his  resurrection  for  life  in  general.     '  If  v\^e  correspond 
to  his  death,'  says  Paul,  '  into  which  our  baptism  buries  us 
with  him,  we  shall  correspond  also  to  his  resurrection  ; ' 
that  is,  in  his  other  and  simpler  phrase,  'we  shall  live.' 
But  of  all  this  we  have   spoken    elsewhere;    let  us    at 
present  content  ourselves  with  quoting,  as  Paul's  general 
witness  to  the  secret  of  Jesus,  these  three  texts,  so  strong 
and  plain  that  they  may  well  stand  as  the  great  signal- 
marks  to  it :  '  I  am  crucified  with  Christ ; '    '  If  ye  die  witli 
him,  ye  shall  also  live  with  him  ; '  '  Always  bearing  about 
in  the  body  the  dying  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  that  the  life  also 
of  Jesus  may  be  manifested  in  our  body.'     The  word  of 
the  cross,  as  he  calls  it,  is  his  pole-star.     By  the  method 
and  example  of  Jesus  he  has  become  aware  of  a  new  prin- 
ciple of  choosing  and  refusing,  of  going  after  things  and 
retiring  from  them.     This  principle  acts  always  in  view  of 
a  nciu  creature,  the  higher  or  real  self,  agi'eeing  with  the 
'■  will  of  God,'  conflicting  with  the  lower  or  apparent  self, 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  261 


or  the  'wishes  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  current  thoughts.'  With 
this  new  principle,  a  man's  great  aim  is  now  '  to  put  oft",  as 
regards  our  former  way  of  Hfe,  the  old  man  that  perishes  by 
co:nplia?tce  with  the  misleading  lusts ;  ^  and  to  put  on  the 
7 lew  man,  that  after  God  is  created  in  righteousness.'  And 
the  secret  for  this  is,  says  Paul,  being  crucified 7uith  Christ, 
or,  being  conformed  to  Chrisfs  death,  or,  always  bearing 
about  in  the  body  the  dying  of  Jesus.  Paul  told  his  converts 
he  was  '  in  travail  of  them  till  Christ  be  fashioned  in  them,' 
—  the  entire  Christ,  with  his  method,  secret,  and  sweet  rea- 
sonableness; but  the  great  stress  is  laid  on  the  'secret,' 
on  dying,  because  this  ivas  Christ's  secret,  because 
tiie  heart  of  the  matter  is  indeed  here.  And  as  we  shall 
do  well  to  have  the  '  secret '  in  our  minds  when  Jesus 
talks  of  •  the  living  water,'  '  the  bread  of  life,'  so  it  is 
of  the  possession  of  this  same  secret  that  Paul  is  specially 
thinking,  when  he  talks  of  '  counting  all  things  but  loss 
for  the  excellency  of  the  knozvledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my 
Lord; '  or  when  he  says  :  '  God  forbid  that  I  should 
glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christy  whereby 
the  world  is  crucified  unto  me,  and  L  unto  the  world  I ' 

And  the  evidence  oijoy  which  testifies  to  the  salvation 
there  is  in  Jesus  and  in  his  secret,  and  the  sense  of  '  not 
ourselves  '  which  fills  this  joy  with  awe   and  gratitude, 

*  ihv  TToAaibi/  aifBpuTTOUj  rbr  pdeipofj-epoy  Kara  rds  iinQuj-das  t'os 
airdTTjs. — Eph.,  iv,  22. 


262  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

and  makes  it  religions  to  the  core,  who  has  rendered 
them  like  Paul  ?  '  Rejoice  evermore  ! '  '  Rejoice  in  the 
Lord  alway ;  again  I  say,  7'ejoice  I '  '  Sorrowful,  yet 
alway  rejoicing!^  *  As  the  sufferings  of  Christ  abound 
with  us,  so  through  Christ  abounds  also  the  consolation' 
'  The  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ ! '  '  Who  shall  separate 
us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ?  '  '  O  the  depth  of  the  riches 
both  of  the  wisdom  and  knowledge  of  God  ! '  '  //  is  God 
that  workcth  in  yon,  both  to  will  and  to  do,  of  his  good 
power.'  '  He  that  glorieth,  let  him  glory  in  the  Eternal!' 

All  this  is  in  Paul ;  and  there  is,  besides,  the  Aber- 
glaube  or  extra-belief  of  the  bodily  resurrection,  of  Christ's 
second  advent  during  the  life-time  of  men  then  living, 
of  the  God  '  willing  to  show  his  wrath  and  to  make  his 
power  known  with  vessels  of  wrath  fitted  to  destruction  ; ' 
there  is  the  Rabbinical  logic,  and  the  unsound  use  of 
prophecy  and  of  the  Old  Testament.  For  popular 
theology  the  writings  of  Paul  are  a  fatal  rock ;  because 
they  are  the  products  of  a  mind  that  was  constantly 
growing,  and  because  they  affect  the  forms  of  logic  and 
science  which  a  complete  notional  system  adopts,  while 
their  true  character  and  force  is  that  of  an  approximative 
experience.  So  the  mechanical  theory  of  inspiration  makes 
strange  work  indeed  with  Paul's  writings.  They  are,  how- 
ever, to  those  who  can  use  them  right,  inexhaustible,  not 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  263 

only  in  their  power  of  animation  and  edification,  but  also 
in  their  illustration  of  the  genuine  doctrine  of  Jesus. 

4. 

The  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  passes  for  the  author 
of  the  epistle  which  we  call  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  John  j 
at  any  rate,  the  epistle  is  written  by  one  who  had  the 
ideas  of  this  gospel  moving  his  mind.  We  of  course, 
therefore,  might  expect  that  the  epistle  should  tally  with 
the  gospel.  And  so  it  does ;  only  it  upholds,  one  may 
say,  in  a  certain  very  important  respect,  the  doctrine  of 
Christ  against  the  Fourth  Gospel  itself. 

We  have  seen  how  the  author  of  this  gospel  had  a  lean- 
ing to  metaphysics ;  so  that  he  delights  M.  Burnouf  by 
showing  a  quite  Indo-European  turn  for  making  God  into 
a  metaphysical  source  of  things,  such  as  is  not  unworthy, 
perhaps,  of  being  called  a  cosmic  unity;  and  Jesus  into  the 
Logos,  necessarily  related,  by  some  lofty  metaphysical  law 
or  other,  to  this  cosmic  unity.  But  presently  came  the 
Gilostics,  still  more  full  of  the  Aryan '  genius,  and  still 
more  admired  by  M,  Burnouf;  full  of  religion's  being  a 
knowing  rather  than  a  doing,  a  metaphysical  conception 
rather  than  righteousness.  And,  in  fact,  as  we  have 
said  already,  it  may  well  seem  wonderful  that  so  great 
u  thing  as  religion  should  be  taken  up  with  so  simple 


264  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


a  thing  as  conduct ;  so  that  Christ  says,  that  he  who 
receives  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  c/iild, — that 
is,  who  simply  receives  it  as  concerned  with  this 
simple  matter, — the  same  is  the  greatest  in  that  kingdom. 
Christ  docs  say  so,  however ;  and  no  one  who  had  lived 
with  him,  and  felt  his  influence,  could  doubt  it.  But  the 
Gnostics,  who  had  not  lived  with  him,  did  not  think 
so  ;  and  they  naturally  imagined  that  a  man  who  was 
right  about  such  grand  things  as  the  cosmic  unity,  and 
\\\e  pla'o/na,  and  emanation,  and  personality,  and  con- 
substantiality,  and  the  like,  must  have  true  religion  and 
be  the  perfect  man.  And  they  naturally  imagined,  too, 
that  the  Christ,  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  could  not 
have  been  anything  so  unmetaphysical,  so  unworthy  of 
the  cosmic  unity,  as  a  mere  man  with  flesh  and  blood  ; 
and  the  DocetcB,  or  Apparitionists,  taught  accordingly 
that  Jesus  had  been  an  apparition  or  phantom,  not  a  man 
at  all.  The  writings  of  the  Apostles  can  hardly  be  under- 
stood unless  we  know  that  very  often  they  are  alluding 
to  these  Gnostics  and  their  productions,  which  had  even 
at  that  early  time  their  successful  beginnings. 

Now,  the  author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  had  a  turn,  as 
we  have  seen,  for  metaphysics,  and  the  author  of  the  First 
Epistle  of  St.  John  had  the  same.  But  a  man  in  vital 
contact  with  Jesus  and  «/<?///^'^,  knew  what  reality  was,  the 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  265 

reality  of  Jesus,  too  well,  to  cany  his  play  of  metaphysics 
into  the  domain  of  this.  And  by  a  sort  of  retribution, 
glorious  indeed  to  the  writer,  still  more  glorious  to  the 
power  of  Christ's  word,  the  two  great  points  of  that  close 
cousin  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  that  document  which  we 
call  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  John,  are  these  :  Jestis  C/u'isf 
conic  in  the  flesh  !  and,  He  that  docth  righteousness  is 
rigJiteous !  Jesus  is  no  metaphysical  phantom,  but  a 
living  man  having  to  do  with  conduct.  Religion  is  no 
intellectualism,  but  righteousness.  Here  we  have  the  sub- 
stratum as  Jesus  laid  it  :  righteousness. 

And  we  have  also,  the  '  method '  of  conscience,  which 
tells  us  what  righteousness  is,  and  how  great  it  is,  and  that 
it  is  indeed  the  substratum.  '  Ye  have  an  unction  from  the 
Holy  One,  and  ye  know  all  things  ;  the  unction  which  ye 
received  from  him  abideth  in  you,  and  ye  need  not  that 
any  one  should  teach  you,  but  his  unction  teacheth  you 
of  all  things,  and  is  true  and  is  no  lie,  and  as  he  taught 
you,  abide  in  him  ! ' 

It  is  characteristic  of  this  beautiful  soul,  that  he  does 
not  go  into  detail  and  give  lists  of  faults.  He  has  fixed 
the  method,  conscience^  and  the  subject-matter  of  the 
method,  righteo7is?iess ;  and  that  is  enough.  It  is  charac- 
teristic, in  like  manner,  that  he  states  and  restates  the 
*  secret '  of  Jesus  by  its  positive  and  loveliest  side.     The 


266  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

'  method '  gives  us  /ig/if,  and  the  '  secret '  gives  us  the 
power  of '  7ualkiiig  in  the  Hght ' ;  and,  '  If  we  walk  in  the 
light,  we  have  fellowship  one  with  another'  For  to  live 
by  dying  to  our  life  in  this  world  is  to  transfer  the  natural 
love  of  life  from  the  personal  self  to  the  impersonal  self, — 
the  self  that  we  share  with  all  other  men ;  so  that  to  die 
to  oneself  is  to  love  the  brethren^  and  by  this  side  is  the 
secret  of  Jesus  always  in  our  Epistle  presented.  '  Let  us 
love  one  afiother I'  'We  know  that  we  have  passed  from 
death  to  life  because  we  love  the  bretJweji' 

And  it  agrees  with  what  we  have  seen  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel  of  the  author's  ear  for  Christ's  profounder  teach- 
ing, that  in  the  Epistle,  too,  we  find  the  proof  of  God, 
of  Christ,  and  of  eternal  life,  made  experimental,  rested 
on  internal  evidence.  *  No  man  hath  ever  yet  seen  God ; 
if  we  love  one  another,  God  dwelleth  in  us.'  Therefore 
we  must  not  attempt  to  define  God  adequately,  or  in  a 
way  that  goes  beyond  our  experience, — to  say,  like  the 
Bishop  of  Gloucester  :  God  is  a  Person  / — but  we  define 
God  approximately,  according  to  our  actual  experience  of 
him.  And  as  Jesus  had  said  of  this  infinite  7wt  ourselves, 
' God  is  an  influence'  so  our  Epistler  says,  '  God  is  love' 
And  he  says  indifferently,  '  He  that  loveth  is  born  of  God,' 
and,  '  He  that  believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  is  born  of 
God,'  because  believing  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ  means, 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  267 

mainly,  admitting  the  authority  of  his  message  or  secret, 
and  his  secret  is  :  Love  one  another  !  And  God's  evidence 
for  his  Son  is  this  :  'That  God  hath  given  to  us  eternal 
life,  and  this  life  is  in  his  Son.'  That  is  :  in  righteousness 
we  have  the  sense  of  being  truly  alive,  and  through  the 
method,  secret,  and  sweet  reasonableness  of  Jesus,  and 
only  through  these,  we  get  at  righteousness. 

As  in  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and  indeed  in  all  the  Gospels, 
they.?_y  which  is  the  signal  accompaniment  of  life  is  in  this 
Epistle  strongly  marked  :  '  These  things  write  I  unto 
you,  that  your  joy  may  be  full.'  And  the  not  ourselves, 
that  element  wherein  religion  has  its  being : — '  Herein  is 
love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us ;  we 
love,  because  he  first  loved  us  ! '  As  we  did  not  make 
the  law  of  righteousness,  so  we  did  not,  the  writer  means, 
make  '  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,'  which  is  love  ;  it  arises  in 
us  from  the  way  the  not  ourselves  affects  us. 

In  our  Epistle,  the  Aberglauhe  of  the  approaching  second 
advent  appears,  of  course,  prominently ;  not  so  that  of 
Christ's  physical  resurrection.  On  the  other  hand,  there 
are  here  launched  phrases  destined  to  rank  one  day  as 
foremost  texts  for  the  doctrine  of  the  Atonement :  'The 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanses  us  from  all  sin; '  '  He  is  the 
propitiation  for  our  sins.'  No  development  is  given  to 
them.    How  much  in  them  is  figure,  how  much  is  tenet  or 


268  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

the  commencements  of  tenet,  we  cannot  say ;  but  there 
they  are,  they  are  launched,  and  the  hint  is  given  to 
popular  religion  to  materialise  and  blunder  with. 


The   Epistle  attributed  to  St.  James  and  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  though  not  of  equal  importance  with  the 
documents  we  have  been  reviewing,  suggest,  nevertheless, 
two  or  three  remarks.     The  zeal  of  St.  James  for  works 
canies  us  back  to  Christ's  sentence  :   '  If  thou  wouldst 
enter  into  life,  keep  the  eommandments  I '  it  is  the  voice  of 
the  indestructible  sense   in  the   \\Titer   that   with  Jesus 
righteousness  was  always  the  end  and  aim.    The  opposition 
to  St.  Paul,  of  which  so  much  has  been  said,  does  not 
really  exist ;   with  both  Apostles  the   aim   is   identical, 
righteousness.      Only    Paul    observed    righteousness    to 
be  in  danger  from   men  using  the  Jewish  law  as  a  kind 
of  spell  which   they  could   conjure   mechanically  with, 
and  therefore  he  elevated  the  faith   by   which   we   get 
hold  of  the  '  secret '  of  Jesus,  of  the    '  doctrine   of  the 
cross.'     James,  in  his  turn,  observed  righteousness  being 
in  danger  from  men  using  faith,  as  it  may  easily  be  used, 
as    a    spell    or   charm   to    conjure   mechanically    with  ; 
and  therefore  he  elevated  works.,  the  being  a  doer^  not  an 


THE  EARLY   WITAESSES.  269 


idle  hearer  and  talker.  But  his  noble  expression,  '  If  a 
man  offend  in  one  point,  he  is  guilty  of  all  ! '  and  his  calling 
the  law  which  he  had  in  view,  'the  law  of  liberty^ 
proves  sufficiently  that  in  no  unsound  sense  did  he 
elevate  works,  as  Paul  in  no  unsound  sense  elevated 
faith. 

The  matter  whereon  the  '  secret '  of  Jesus  finds  exer- 
cise, '  the  wishes  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  current  thoughts,' 
is  well  called  by  St.  James  :  '  Om pleasures  which  war  in 
our  members.'  x\nd  when  he  goes  on  and  says  :  '  Being 
in  with  the  world  is  being  out  with  God  ! '  ^  he  has  on  his 
lips,  and  in  his  thoughts  too,  the  very  words  of  the 
secret  :  '  '  He  that  Iiateth  his  life  iji  this  wo?'ld  shall  keep 
it  unto  life  eternal.'  For  he  means,  not  as  many  readers 
suppose  :  '  He  that  stands  well  with  the  world  stands  ill 
with  God  ; '  he  means  :  '  He  that  is  in  with  the  pleasures 
which  war  in  our  members,  is  out  with  God.' 

But  we  must  not  dwell  at  length  on  this  writer,  in- 
structive as  he  is,  and  ill  as  he  has  been  often  judged. 
In  fineness  or  richness  of  spiritual  perception  his 
Epistle  may  be  inferior  to  that  of  others  ;  without  undue 
disparagement  of  him  we  can  own  this.  All  the  more 
remarkable,  as  a  testimony  to  what  was  chiefly  striking 
in  Christ,  is  his  signalling  and  extolling  that  character  in 

'  'H  (piKia  rov  K6aiJ.ov  ^x^pa  tov  Qeov  iariy. — James,  iv,  4. 


270  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 

Christianity  into  which  fineness  of  perception  enters 
most:  epieikeia.  'The  wisdom  from  above,'  says  St. 
James,  'is  sweetly  reasonable.' 

It  is  more  difficult  to  limit  ourselves  in  speaking  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.     Almost  alone  in  the  Bible,  it  is, 
like  later  theology,  a  notional  work  as  distinguished  from 
an  experimental  work ;  that  is,  instead  of  being  found  to  run 
up,  at  last,  into  an  experience  of  the  Eternal  that  makes 
for  righteousness,  it  will  be  found  to  run  up  into  a  notion 
of  Jesus  being  the  Logos,  with  the  characters  of  the 
Logos  as  they  are  stated,  for  instance,  in  Philo ;  and  of 
this  being  proveable  from  Scripture  and  putting  an  end 
to  the  old  Jewish  dispensation.     And  because  of  this 
notional  character,  later  theology  has  so  much  used  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  and  is  really  in  great  part  built 
on  it.     For  later  theology  is  notional,  too ;  the  ground- 
thesis  of  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  '  the  blessed   truth 
that  the  God  of  the  Universe  is  a  Person,'  is  just  such  a 
notion  as  the  ground-thesis  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
that  Jesus  is  the  Logos  of  Jewish- Alexandrian  philosophy. 
Religion  has  nothing  really  to  do  with  either  thesis,  and 
that  is  fortunate ;  for  neither  thesis  is  demonstrable,  and 
the  demonstrations  attempted  are  often  palpably  hollow. 
For  instance,  the  whole  of  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle 
to   the   Hebrews  is  an  allegation  of  text  after  text  as 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  271 

meaning  Jesus,  and  as  therefore  establishing  the  writer's 
thesis,  not  one  of  which  texts  does  really  mean  Jesus. 
The  seventh  chapter,  again,  is  one  tissue  of  clever,  learned 
trifling,  such  as  we  might  have  from  the  Bishop  of 
Gloucester,  all  based  on  the  false  assumption  that  '  Thou 
art  a  priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchisedek  ! '  was 
really  said  io/esiis,  whereas  it  was  not. 

Now,  just  because  of  this  notional  character,  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  could  not  have  been  Paul's  ; 
for  St.  Paul  goes  upon  experience,  not  notion.  And 
such  a  work  can  never  have  the  value  and  interest 
of  Paul's  writings,  for  it  is,  in  truth,  all  in  the  air.  But 
a  man  who  puts  a  hollow  notion  as  the  basis  of  his 
theology,  may  yet  in  treating  it  give  us  all  kinds  of  real 
and  valuable  experience ;  of  this  we  have  abundant 
examples  in  the  writings  of  theologians.  And  so  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  full  of  beautiful  things,  and 
things  of  real  religious  experience  ;  but  they  are  indepen- 
dent of  the  ground-thesis  of  the  Epistle,  their  value  has 
another  source  than  the  value  of  the  writer's  main  design, 
and  indeed  is  often  marred  by  it.  Their  value  is  as 
reminiscences  of  Jesus,  and  their  witness  to  Jesus  is  the 
more  striking  because  of  the  medium  where  they  appear. 
To  have  survived  and  appear  in  such  a  medium 
they  must  have  been  originally  very  strong. 


272  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

The  sense  that  in  righteousness  religion  begins  and 
ends,  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  has  not  ; 
like  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester,  he  has 
lost  it.  He  talks  of  'not  laying  again  the  foundations,' 
by  which  he  means  righteousness,  but  'going  on 
unto  perfection  ;'  by  which  he  means  such  things  as 
the  doctrine  that  Christ  is,  like  the  Logos  of  theosophy, 
High  Priest,  and  as  the  demonstration  about  Melchisedek. 
All  this  is  of  the  same  order  with  the  Bishop  of 
Gloucester's  '  blessed  truth  that  the  God  of  the  universe 
is  a  Person,'  which  he  and  his  friends  imagine  to  be 
the  marrow  of  religion,  whereas  in  truth  it  is  not  re- 
ligion at  all.  But  it  is  remarkable  how  frequently  the 
writer  of  our  Epistle  has  the  word  of  the  'method,' 
conscience)  again  and  again  it  recurs  with  him  ;  nowhere 
in  the  Bible  does  it  appear,  within  equal  limits  of  space, 
so  often.  The  word  has  evidently  established  itself  and 
become  a  power. 

But  most  remarkable  is  the  testimony  of  this  writer 
to  the  '  secret.'  Plis  view  of  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  as 
replacing  the  sacrifices  of  the  Jewish  law  is  all  notional, 
and  is  really  quite  independent  of  Christ's  sacrifice 
as  the  '  secret.'  Yet  the  '  secret '  appears ;  and  in 
phrases  so  striking  and  so  much  profounder  than  the 
strain  of  this  writer's  argument,  that  one  is  tempted  to 


THE  EARLY   WITNESSES.  273 

see  in  them  a  tradition  of  words,  not  otherwise  preserved, 
of  Jesus  himself.  *  It  behoved  God,  in  bringing  many 
sons  to  glory,  to  make  the  leader  of  their  salvation 
perfect  through  suffering.''  Christ  ^  learned  obedience  from 
the  things  that  he  suffered^  and,  being  perfected,  became 
tJu  author  of  eternal  salvation  to  all  who  obey  him. 
Christ,  like  mankind,  partook  of  flesh  and  blood,  'in 
order  that  by  death  he  might  deliver  theni  who  through 
fear  of  death  were  all  their  life  subject  to  bondage^  This 
is  precisely  the  *  secret ; '  the  pain  and  fear  and  gloom 
of  dying  to  our  apparent  self,  to  '  the  wishes  of  the 
flesh  and  the  current  thoughts '  are  so  great,  that  only 
Jesus  and  his  '  secret,'  lighting  the  process  up  with  joy 
by  showing  it  to  be  really  life  not  death,  could  overcome 
them,  and  could  enable  mankind  to  overcome  them. 
In  like  manner  the  noble  phrase,  ^without  shedding  of 
blood  is  no  remission,'  notional  and  unfruitful  as  is  its 
use  in  the  connexion  where  our  author  employs  it, 
is  in  itself,  perhaps,  a  reminiscence  of  actual  words  of 
Jesus ;  certainly  it  is  a  reminiscence  of  his  '  secret.' 
In  itself  it  ranks  with  the  beautiful  and  profound 
phrase  of  St.  Peter  :  'He  that  suffers  in  the  flesh  hath 
ceased  from  sin.' 

Finally,  in  the  ardour  for  martyrdom  which  followed  in 
the  Christian  Church  a  little  later,  in  the  passion  for  seek- 

T 


274  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


ing  out  this  kind  of  death,  courting  it,  provoking  it  by 
every  means  discoverable,  we  shall  not  err  if  we  believe  that 
here  again  is  visible  the  trace  of  the  *  secret/  Assuredly 
many  martyrs,  in  the  temper  with  which  they  provoked 
their  death,  were  false  to  the  epieiketa,  the  '  sweet  reason- 
ableness,' of  Jesus,  and  laid  themselves  open  to  that  sen- 
tence of  Paul,  the  sentence  which  will  be  the  final  verdict 
of  religious  history  on  Puritanism  also,  Puritanism  glorying 
in  its  resistances  :  '  Though  I  give  my  body  to  be  burned, 
ajid  have  not  charity^  it  profiteth  me  nothing/  And 
there  was  nothing  to  command  or  advise  the  repetition, 
upon  every  disciple,  of  the  actual  bodily  execution  of 
Jesus.  But  Jesus  had  enjoined  dyings  taking  iip  the 
cross,  the  'secret;'— a  long  inward  travail,  other,  and 
often  much  harder,  than  being  once  for  all  executed. 
Paul  still  understood  what  Jesus  meant  by  dying.  But 
the  apostolic  age  passed ;  and  now  the  Christian  com- 
munity took  the  word  literally,  and  Christians  vied 
with  each  other  which  could  run  fastest  to  the  place 
of  execution.  The  wonderful  spectacle  accelerated 
Christianity's  conquest  of  the  world ;  but  it  was  already  an 
evidence  of  failure,  in  some  sort,  to  follow  the  mind  of 
Jesus  and  the  teaching  of  his  greatest  apostles.  Yet  a 
little  while  is  the  light  with  you  f  walk  while  ye  have 
the  light,  lest  the  darkness  overtake  you  unawares  I 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  i-JS 


CHAPTER   IX. 


ABERGLA  UBE  RE-INVADING. 


So  spoke  the  men  who  had  had  the  Light  with  them  or 
near  them.  Mistakes  they  made  and  could  not  but 
make.  But  they  still  knew,  that  to  beHeve  Jesus  to  be  the 
Son  of  God,  meant  to  receive  and  apply  the  method  and 
secret  of  Jesus;  and  therefore  their  word  is  the  Christian's 
greatest  source  of  instruction  and  inspiration  after  the 
word  of  Christ  himself 

But  miracles,  and  the  crowning  miracles  of  the  Resur- 
rection and  Ascension  to  be  followed  by  the  second 
Advent,  were  from  the  first  firmly  fixed  as  parts  of  the 
disciples'  belief  '  Behold^  he  comet Ji  with  cloiids ;  and 
every  eye  shall  see  him,  and  they  also  which  piei'ced  hint; 
and  all  kindi'cds  of  the  earth  shall  wail  because  of  him  f ' 
As  time  went  on,  and  Christianity  spread  wider  and 
wider  among  the  multitudes,  and  with  less  and  less  of 
control  from  the  personal  influence  of  Jesus,  Christianity 
developed  more  and  more  its  side  of  miracle  and  legend ; 


276  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


until  to  believe  Jesus  to  be  the  Son  of  God  meant  to 
believe  the  points  of  the  legend, — his  preternatural 
conception  and  birth,  his  miracles,  his  descent  into  hell, 
his  bodily  resurrection,  his  ascent  into  heaven,  and  his 
future  triumphant  return  to  judgment.  And  these  and 
like  matters  are  what  popular  religion  drew  forth  from  the 
records  of  Jesus  as  the  essentials  of  belief  These  essen- 
tials got  embodied  in  a  short  formulary;  and  so  the 
creed  which  is  called  the  Apostles'  Creed  came  together. 
It  is  not  the  apostles'  creed,  for  it  took  more  than 
five  hundred  years  to  grow  to  maturity.  It  was  not 
the  creed  of  any  single  doctor  or  body  of  doctors,  but 
it  was  the  sort  of  summary  of  Christianity  which  the 
people,  the  Church  at  large,  would  naturally  develope ; 
it  is  the  popular  science  of  Christianity.  Given  the 
alleged  charge  :  '  Go  ye  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit,'  and  the  candidate  for  baptism  would  naturally  come 
to  have  a  profession  of  faith  to  make  respecting  that 
whereinto  he  was  baptized ;  this  profession  of  faith 
would  naturally  become  just  such  a  summary  as  the 
Apostles'  Creed.  It  contains  no  mention  of  either  the 
*  method'  or  the  'secret,'  it  is  occupied  entirely  with 
external  facts  ;  and  it  may  be  safely  said,  not  only  that 
such  a  summary  of  religious  faith  could  never  have  been 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  277 

delivered  by  Jesus,  but  it  could  never  have  been  adopted 
as  adequate  by  any  of  his  principal  apostles,  by  Peter, 
or  Paul,  or  John.  But  it  is,  as  we  have  said,  the  popular 
science  of  Christianity. 

Years  proceeded.  The  world  came  in  to  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  world's  educated  people,  and  the  educated 
people's  Aryan  genius  with  its  turn  for  making  religion 
a  metaphysical  conception, — and  all  this  in  a  time  of 
declining  criticism,  a  time  when  the  possibility  of  true 
scientific  criticism,  in  any  direction  whatever,  was  lessen- 
ing rather  than  increasing.  The  popular  science  was 
found  not  elaborate  enough  to  satisfy.  Ingenious  men 
took  its  terms  and  its  data,  and  applied  to  them  not  an 
historical  criticism  showing  how  they  arose,  but  abstruse 
metaphysical  conceptions.  And  so  we  have  the  so-called 
Nicene  Creed,  which  is  the  learned  science  of  Christianity, 
as  the  Apostles'  Creed  is  the  popular  science. 

Now,  how  this  learned  science  is  related  to  the  Bible  we 
shall  feel,  if  we  compare  the  religious  utterances  of  its 
doctors  with  the  religious  utterances  of  the  Bible.  Suppose, 
for  instance,  we  compare  with  the  Psalms  the  Soliloquies 
of  St.  Augustine,  a  truly  great  and  religious  man ;  and  this 
man,  not  in  school  and  controversy,  but  in  religious  soli- 
loquy. St.  Augustine  prays :  '  Come  to  my  help,  thou 
one  God,  one  eternal  true  substance,  where  is  no  discre^ 


278  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

pancy,  no  confusion,  no  transience,  no  indigency,  no 
death;  where  is  supreme  concord,  supreme  evidence, 
supreme  constancy,  supreme  plenitude,  supreme  life ; 
where  nothing  is  lacking,  nothing  is  over  and  above  ; 
where  he  who  begets  and  he  who  is  begotten  of  him  are 
one ;  God,  above  whom  is  nothing,  outside  whom  is  no- 
thing, without  whom  is  nothing ;  God,  beneath  whom  is 
the  whole,  in  whom  is  the  whole,  with  whom  is  the  whole 
.  .  .  hearken,  hearken,  hearken  unto  me,  my  God,  my 
Lord;  open  thy  door  unto  me  that  knock!'  And  a 
further  Book  of  Soliloquies^  popularly  ascribed  to  St. 
Augustine  and  printed  with  his  works,  but  probably  of  a 
later  date  and  author,  shows  the  full-blown  development 
of  all  this,  shows  the  inevitable  results  of  bringing  to  the 
idea  of  God  this  play  of  the  intellectual  fancy  so  alien  to 
the  Bible.  The  passages  we  will  quote  take  evidently 
their  inspiration  from  the  words  of  St.  Augustine  just 
given,  and  retain  even  in  some  degree  his  very  forms  of 
expression  :  '  Holy  Trinity,  superadmirable  Trinity,  and 
superinenarrable,  and  superinscrutable,  and  superinac- 
cessible,  superincomprehensible,  superintelligible,  super- 
essential,  superessentially  surpassing  all  sense,  all  reason, 
all  intellect,  all  intelligence,  all  essence  of  supercelestial 
minds;  which  can  neither  be  said,  nor  thought,  nor 
understood,  nor  known,  even  by  the  eyes  of  angels ! ' 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  2y<) 

And  again,  more  practically,  but  still  in  the  same  style  : 
*  O  three  co-equal  and  co-eternal  Persons,  one  and  true 
God,  Father  and  Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  who  by  thyself 
inhabitest  eternity  and  light  inaccessible,  who  hast 
founded  the  earth  in  thy  power,  and  rulest  the  world  by 
thy  prudence,  Holy,  Holy,  Holy,  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth, 
terrible  and  strong,  just  and  merciful,  admirable,  laudable, 
amiable,  one  God,  three  persons,  one  essence,  power, 
wisdom,  goodness,  one  and  undivided  Trinity,  open  unto 
me  that  cry  unto  Thee  the  gates  of  righteousness  ! ' 

And  now  compare  this  with  the  Bible : — '  Teach  me 
to  do  the  thing  that  pleaseth  thee,  for  thou  art  my  God! 
let  thy  loving  spirit  lead  7ne  forth  into  the  hmd  of  righteous- 
ness !  That  is  Israel's  way  of  praying  !  that  is  how  a 
poor  ill-endowed  Semite,  belonging  to  the  occipital  races, 
unhelped  by  the  Aryan  genius  and  ignorant  that  religion 
is  a  metaphysical  conception,  talks  religion !  and  we  see 
what  a  different  thing  he  makes  of  it.  v 

But,  finally,  the  original  Semite  fell  more  and  more 
into  the  shade.  The  Aryas  came  to  the  front,  the  notion 
of  religion  being  a  metaphysical  conception  prevailed. 
But  the  doctors  differed  in  their  metaphysics  j  and  the 
doctors  who  conquered  enshrined  their  victorious  form  of 
metaphysics  in  a  creed,  the  so-called  Creed  of  St.  Atha- 
nasius,  which  is  learned  science  like  the  Nicene  Creed, 


28o  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


but  learned  science  which  has  fought  and  got  ruffled  by 
fighting,  and  is  fiercely  dictatorial  now  it  has  won ; — 
learned  science  with  a  stro7ig  dash  of  violent  and  vindictive 
temper.  So  we  have  the  three  creeds  :  the  so- 
called  Apostles'  Creed,  popular  science;  the  Nicene 
Creed,  learned  science ;  the  Athanasian  Creed,  learned 
science  with  a  strong  dash  of  temper.  And  the  two 
latter  are  founded  on  the  first,  taking  its  data  just  as  they 
stand,  but  dressing  them  metaphysically. 

Now  this  first  Creed  is  founded  on  a  supposed  final 
charge  from  Jesus  to  his  apostles :  '  Go  ye  and  teach  all 
nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost ! '  It  explains  and  expands  what 
Jesus  here  told  his  apostles  to  baptize  the  world  into. 
But  we  have  already  remarked  the  difference  in  character 
between  the  narrative,  in  the  Gospels,  of  what  happened 
before  Christ's  death  and  the  narrative  of  what  happened 
after  it.  For  all  words  of  Jesus  placed  after  his  death, 
the  internal  evidence  becomes  pre-eminently  important. 
He  may  well  have  said  words  attributed  to  him,  but 
not  then.  So  the  speech  to  Thomas  :  '  Because  thou  hast 
seen  me  thou  hast  believed ;  blessed  are  they  who  have 
not  seen  and  yet  have  believed  ! '  may  quite  well  have  been 
a  speech  of  Jesus  uttered  on  some  occasion  during  his  life, 
and  then  transferred  to  the  story  of  the  days  after  his 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  281 

resurrection  and  made  the  centre  of  this  incident  of  the 
doubt  of  Thomas.     On  the  other  hand,  again,  the  pro- 
phecy of  the  details  of  Peter's  death  ^  is  almost  certainly 
an  addition  after  the  event,  because  it  is  not  at  all  in 
the  manner  of  Jesus';  what  is  in  his  manner,   and  what 
he  had  probably  said,  are  the  words   given   elsewhere  : 
'  Whither  I  go  thou  canst  not  follow  me  now,  but  thou 
shalt  follow  me  afterwards.'     So,  too,  it  is  extremely  im- 
probable that  Jesus  should  have  ever  charged  his  apostles 
to  '  baptize  all  nations  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  the 
Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost.'    There  is  no  improbability 
in   his   investing  them  with   a   very   high   commission. 
He  may  perfectly  well  have  said  :  '  Whosesoever  sins  ye 
remit,  they  are  remitted;  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they 
are  retained.'     But  it  is  almost  impossible  he  can  have 
given  this  charge  to  baptize  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
the  Son,  and  the   Holy  Ghost ;    it  is  by  far  too  syste- 
matic, and  what  people  are  fond  of  calling  an  aiiachronisnu 
It  is  not  the  least  like  what  Jesus  was  in  the  habit  of 
saying,  and  it  is  just  like  what  would  be  attributed  to 
him  as  baptism   and  its   formula   grew  in   importance. 
The  genuine  charge  of  Jesus  to  his  apostles  was,  almost 
certainly  :  *  As  my  Father  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you,* 
and  not  this.     So  that  our  three  creeds,  and  with  them 
'  John,  xxi,  18. 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


the  whole  of  our  so-called  orthodox  theology,  are  founded 
upon  words  which  Jesus  in  all  probability  never  uttered. 


We  may  leave  all  questions  about  the  Church,  its  rise, 
and  its  organisation,  out  of  sight  altogether.  Much  as 
is  made  of  them,  they  are  comparatively  unimportant. 
Jesus  never  troubled  himself  with  what  are  called 
Church  matters  at  all ;  his  attention  was  fixed  solely  upon 
the  individual.  His  apostles  did  what  was  necessary,  as 
such  matters  came  to  require  a  practical  notice  and 
arrangement ;  but  to  the  apostles,  too,  they  were  still 
quite  secondary.  The  Church  grew  into  something  quite 
different  from  what  they  or  Jesus  had,  or  could  have  had, 
any  thought  of.  But  this  was  of  no  importance  in  itself ; 
and  how  believers  should  organise  their  society  as  cir- 
cumstances changed,  circumstances  themselves  might  very 
well  decide. 

The  one  important  question  was  and  is,  how  believers 
laid  and  kept  hold  on  the  revelations  contained  in  the 
Bible ;  because  for  the  sake  of  these  it  confessedly  is,  that 
every  church  exists.  Even  the  apostles,  we  have  seen, 
did  not  lay  hold  on  them  perfectly.  In  their  attachment 
to  miracles,  in  the  prominence  they  gave  to  the  crowning 
miracles   of  Christ's  physical  resurrection    and   second 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  283 

advent,  they  went  aside  from  the  saving  doctrine  of 
Jesus  themselves,  and  were  sure, — which  was  worse, — to 
make  others  go  aside  from  it  ten  thousand  times  more. 
But  they  were  too  near  to  ^esus  not  to  have  been  able  to 
preserve  the  main  lines  of  his  teaching,  and  his  way  of 
using  words  ;  and  they  did,  as  we  have  shown,  preserve 
them. 

But  at  their  death  the  immediate  remembrance  of  Jesus 
faded  away,  and  whatever  Aherglaube  the  apostles  them- 
selves had  had  and  sanctioned  was  left  to  work  without 
check ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  world  and  society  pre 
sented  conditions  constantly  less  and  less  favourable  to 
sane  criticism.  And  it  was  then,  and  under  these  con- 
ditions, that  the  dogma  which  is  now  called  orthodox, 
and  which  our  dogmatic  friends  imagine  to  be  purely  a 
methodical  arrangement  of  the  admitted  facts  of  Chris- 
tianity, grew  up.  We  have  shown  from  the  thing  itself, 
by  putting  the  dogma  in  comparison  with  the  genuine 
teaching  of  Jesus,  how  little  it  is  this ;  but  it  is  well  to 
make  clear  to  oneself  also  (for  one  can)  from  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  that  it  coidd  not  be  this. 

For  dogmatic  theology  is,  in  fact,  an  attempt  at  both 
literary  and  scientific  criticism  of  the  highest  order ;  and 
the  age  which  developed  dogma  had  neither  the  resources 
nor  the  faculty  for  such  a  criticism.    It  is  idle  to  talk  of  the 


234  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

theological  instinct,  the  analogy  of  faith,  as  if  by  the  mere 
occupation  with  a  limited  subject-matter  one  could  reach 
the  truth  about  it.     It  is  as  if  one  imagined  that  by  the 
mere  study  of  Greek  we  could  reach  the  truth  about  the 
origin  of  Greek  words,  and  dogmatise  about  them ;  and 
could  appeal   to  our  supposed  possession,  through  our 
labours,  of  the  philological  instinct,  the  analogy  of  lan- 
guage, to  make  our  dogmatism  go  down.    In  general  such 
an  instinct,  whether  theological  or  philological,  will  mean 
merely,  that,  having  accustomed  ourselves  to  look  at  things 
through  a  glass  of  a  certain  colour,  we  see  them  always 
of  that  colour.     What  the  science  of  Bible-criticism,  like 
all  other  science,  needs,  is  a  very  Avide  experience  from 
comparative  obsen^ation  in  many  directions,  and  a  very 
slowly  acquired  habit  of  mind.     All   studies  have  the 
benefit  of  these  guides,  when  they  exist,  and  one  isolated 
study  can  never   have   the  benefit   of  them  by  itself. 
There  is  a  common  order,  a  general  level,  an  uniform 
possibility,  for  these  things.      As  were  the  geography, 
history,  physiology,  cosmology,  of  the  men  who  developed 
dogma,  so  was  also  their  faculty  for  a  scientific  Bible- 
criticism,  such  as  dogma  pretends  to  be.     Now,  we  know 
what  their  geography,   history,   physiology,  cosmolog>% 
were.     Cosmas  Indicopleustes,  a  Christian  navigator  of 
Justinian's  time,  denies  that  the  earth  is  spherical,  and 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  285 


asserts  it  to  be  a  flat  surface  with  the  sky  put  over  it  like 
a  dish-cover.  The  Christian  metaphysics  of  the  same 
age,  applying  the  ideas  of  substance  and  identity  to  what 
the  Bible  says  about  God,  Jesus,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  are 
on  a  par  with  this  natural  philosophy. 

And  again,  as  one  part  of  their  scientific  Bible-criticism, 
so  the  rest.   We  have  seen  in  the  Bible-writers  themselves 
a  quite  uncritical  use  of  the  Old  Testament  and  of  pro- 
phecy j  now,  does  this  become  less  in  the  authors  of  our 
dogmatic  theology, — a  far  more  pretentious  effort  of  criti- 
cism than  the  Bible-writers  ever  made, — or  does  it  become 
greater?   It  becomes  a  thousand  times  greater.    Not  only 
are  definite  predictions  found  where  they  do  not  exist, — as, 
for  example,  in  Isaiah's  /  will  restore  thy  Judges  as  at  the 
first,  is  found  a'  definite  foretelling  of  the  Apostles, — but  in 
the  whole  Bible  a  secret  allegorical  sense  is  supposed, 
higher  than  the  natural  sense;  so  that  Jerome  calls  tracing 
the    natural   sense   an  eating  dust  like  the  serpent,  in 
modum   serpentis  terram   comedere.      Therefore,  for   one 
expounder,  Isaiah's  prophecy  against  Egypt :  The  Eternal 
rideth  upon  a  light  cloud,  and  shall  come  into  Egypt,  is  the 
flight  into  Egypt   of    the   Holy  Family,    and  the  light 
cloud  is  the  virgin-born  body  of  Jesus ;  for  another.  The 
government  shall  be  upon  his  shoulder,  is  Christ's  carrying 
upon  his  shoulder  the  cross  ;  for  another.  The  lion  shall 


!86  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


eat  straiu  like  the  ox,  is  the  faithful  and  the  wicked  alike 
receiving  the  body  of  Christ  in  the  Eucharist. 

These  are  the  men,  this  is  the  critical  faculty  from 
which  our  so-called  orthodox  dogma  proceeded ;  the 
wordi  of  all  the  productions  of  such  a  cridcal  faculty 
is  easy  to  estimate,  for  the  worth  is  nearly  uniform. 
When  the  Rabbinical  expounders  interpret  :  Woe  tpito 
them  tJiat  lay  field  to  field !  as  a  prophetic  curse  on  the 
accumulation  of  Church  property,  or  :  Woe  wito  them  that 
rise  7ip  early  in  the  morning  that  they  may  follow  strong 
drink  !  as  a  prediction  of  the  profligacy  of  the  Church 
clerg}^,  or  :  Woe  unto  them  that  draiu  iniquity  with  cords 
of  vanity  !  as  God's  malediction  on  Church  bells,  we  say 
at  once  that  such  critics  thus  give  their  measure  as 
extractors  of  the  true  sense  of  the  Bible.  The  m.oment 
we  think  seriously  and  fairly,  we  must  see  that  the 
Patristic  interpretations  of  prophecy  give,  in  like  manner, 
their  authors'  measure  as  extractors  of  the  true  sense  of 
the  Bible.  Yet  this  is  what  the  dogma  of  the  Nicene 
and  Athanasian  Creeds  professes  to  be,  and  must  be  if  it 
is  to  be  worth  anything, — the  true  sense  extracted  from 
the  Bible;  for,  'the  Bible  is  the  record  of  the  whole 
revealed  faith,'  says  Dr.  Ne^vman.  But  we  see  how  im- 
possible it  is  that  this  true  sense  the  dogma  of  these 
creeds  should  be. 

Therefore  it  is,  that  it  is  useful  to  give  signal  instances 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  2Z7 

of  the  futility  of  patristic  and  mediaeval  criticism ;  not 
to  raise  an  idle  laugh,  but  because  our  whole  dogmatic 
theology  has  a  patristic  and  mediaeval  source,  and  from 
the  nullity  of  the  deliverances  of  this  criticism,  where 
it  can  be  brought  manifestly  to  book,  may  be  infeiTed 
the  nullity  of  its  deliverances,  where,  from  the  im- 
palpable and  incognisable  character  of  the  subjects 
treated,  to  bring  it  manifestly  to  book  is  impossible.  In 
the  account  of  the  Creation,  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis,  '  the  greater  light  to  rule  the  day '  is  the  priest- 
hood ;  '  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night,'  borrowing  its 
beams  from  the  greater,  is  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
When  the  disciples  of  Jesus  produced  two  swords,  and 
Jesus  said  :  '  It  is  enough,'  he  meant,  we  are  told, 
the  temporal  and  the  spiritual  powxr,  and  that  both 
were  necessary  and  both  at  the  disposal  of  the  Church ; 
but  by  saying  afterwards  to  Peter,  after  he  had  cut  off  the 
ear  of  Malchus  :  *  Put  up  thy  sword  into  the  sheath,'  he 
meant  that  the  Church  was  not  to  wield  the  temporal 
power  itself,  but  to  employ  the  secular  government  to 
wield  it.  Now,  this  is  the  very  same  force  of  criticism 
which  in  the  Athanasian  Creed  '  arranged,  sentence  after 
sentence,'  that  doctrine  of  the  Godhead  of  the  Eternal 

Son  for  which  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and  Gloucester 

« 
are  so  anxious  to  '  do  something.' 

The  Schoolmen  themselves  are  but   the  same  false 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


criticism  developed,  and  clad  in  an  apparatus  of  logic 
and  system.  In  that  grand  and  instructive  repertory 
founded  by  the  Benedictines,  the  Histoire  Litteraire 
de  la  France^  we  read  that  in  the  theological  faculty 
of  the  University  of  Paris,  the  leading  mediaeval  university, 
it  was  seriously  discussed  whether  Jesus  at  his  ascension 
had  his  clothes  on  or  not.  If  he  had  not,  did  he  appear 
before  his  apostles  naked  ?  if  he  had,  what  became 
of  the  clothes?  J/^;2j-/r^//j-/ everyone  will  say.*  Yes, 
but  the  very  same  criticism,  only  full-blo\vn,  which 
produced  :  '  Neither  confounding  the  Persons  nor  dividing 
the  Substance.'  The  very  same  criticism,  which  origi- 
nally treated  terms  as  scientific  which  were  not  scien- 
tific ;  which,  instead  of  applying  literary  and  historical 
criticism  to  the  data  of  popular  Aberglaube,  took 
these  data  just  as  they  stood  and  merely  dressed 
them  scientifically. 

Catholic  dogma  itself  is  true,  urges,  hoAvever,  Dr. 
Newman,  because  intelligent  Catholics  have  dropped 
errors  and  absurdities  like  the  False  Decretals  or  the 
works  of  the  pretended  Dionysius  the  Areopagite,  but 

»  Be  it  observed,  however,  that  there  is  an  honest  scientific  effort 
in  the  Schoolmen,  and  that  to  this  sort  of  thing  one  really  does 
come,  when  one  fairly  sets  oneself  to  treat  miracles  literally  and 
exactly  ;  but  most  of  us  are  content  to  leave  them  in  a  half  hght. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  289 

have  not  dropped  dogma.  This  is  only  saying  that  men 
drop  the  more  palpable  blunder  before  the  less  palpable. 
The  adequate  criticism  of  the  Bible  is  extremely  difficult, 
and  slowly  does  the  '  Zeit-Geist '  unveil  it.  Meanwhile, 
of  the  premature  and  false  criticism  to  which  we  are 
accustomed,  we  drop  the  evidently  weak  parts  first ;  we 
retain  the  rest,  to  drop  it  gradually  and  piece  by  piece  as 
it  loosens  and  breaks  up.  But  it  is  all  of  one  order,  and 
in  time  it  will  all  go.  Not  the  Athanasian  Creed's  dam- 
natory clauses  only,  but  the  whole  Creed ;  not  this  one 
Creed  only,  but  the  three  Creeds, — our  whole  received 
application  of  science^  popular  or  learned,  to  the  Bible. 
For  it  was  an  inadequate  and  false  science,  and  could  not, 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  be  otherwise. 

3- 

And  now  we  see  how  much  that  clergyman  deceives 
himself,  who  writes  to  the  Guardian  :  '  The  objectors 
to  the  Athanasian  Creed  at  any  rate  admit,  that  its  doc- 
trinal portions  are  truly  the  carefully  distilled  essence  of 
the  scattered  intimations  of  Holy  Scripture  on  the  deep 
mysteries  in  question, — priceless  discoveries  made  in  that 
field.*  When  one  has  travelled  to  the  Athanasian  Creed 
along  the  gradual  line  of  the  historical  development  of 
Christianity,  instead  of  living  stationary  all  one's 
u 


290  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

life  with  this  Creed  blocking  up  the  view,  one  is 
really  tempted  to  say,  when  one  reads  a  deliverance 
like  that  of  this  clergyman  :  Sancta  simplicitas !  It  is 
just  because  the  Athanasian  Creed  pretends  to  be.,  in 
its  doctrine,  'the  carefully  distilled  essence  of  the  scattered 
intimations  of  Holy  Scripture,'  and  is  so  very  far  from  if, 
that  it  is  worthless.  It  is  '■  the  carefully  distilled  essence 
of  the  scattered  intimations  of  Holy  Scripture '  just  as  that 
allegory  of  the  two  swords  was.  It  is  really  a  mixture, — 
for  true  criticism,  as  it  ripens,  it  is  even  a  grotesque 
mixture, — of  learned  pseudo-science  with  popular  Aber- 
glaiihe. 

But  it  cannot  be  too  carefully  borne  in  mind  that  the 
real  '-  essence  of  Holy  Scripture,'  its  saving  truth,  is  no 
such  criticism  at  all  as  the  so-called  orthodox  dogma 
attempts,  and  attempts  unsuccessfully.  No,  the  real 
essence  of  Scripture  is  a  much  simpler  matter.  It  is, 
for  the  Old  Testament :  To  him  that  ordereth  his  con- 
versation right  shall  be  shown  the  salvation  of  God! — and, 
for  the  New  Testament :  Follow  Jesus !  This  is  Bible- 
dogma,  as  opposed  to  the  dogma  of  our  formularies.  On 
this  Bible-dogma  if  Churches  were  founded,  and  to  preach 
this  Bible-dogma  if  ministers  were  ordained,  Churches 
and  ministers  would  have  all  the  dogma  to  which  the 
Bible  attaches  eternal  life.     Plain   and   precise   enough 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  291 


it  is,  in  all  conscience;  with  the  advantage  of  being 
precisely  rights  whereas  the  plain  dogma  of  our  formu- 
laries is  precisely  wrong.  And  if  any  one  finds  it  too 
simple,  let  him  remember  that  its  hardness  is  practical, 
not  speculative ;  it  is  a  rule  of  conduct ;  let  him  act  it, 
and  he  will  find  it  hard  enough.  Utinavi  per  uniini  diem 
bene  essevius  co7wcrsati  in  hoc  mundo  !  But  as  a  matter 
of  mere  knowledge  it  is  very  simple,  it  lies  on  the 
surface  of  the  Bible  and  cannot  be  missed. 

And  the  holders  of  ecclesiastical  dogma  have  always, 
we  must  remember,  held  and  professed  this  Bible- 
dogma  too.  Their  ecclesiastical  dogma  may  have  pre- 
vented their  attending  closely  enough  to  the  Bible-dogma, 
may  have  led  them  often  to  act  false  to  it ;  but 
they  have  always  held  it.  The  method  and  the  secret 
of  Jesus  have  been  always  prized.  The  Catholic  Church 
from  the  first  held  aloft  the  secret  of  Jesus  ;  the  monastic 
orders  were  founded,  we  may  say,  in  homage  to  it. 
And  from  time  to  time,  through  the  course  of  ages, 
there  have  arisen  men  who  threw  themselves  on  the 
method  and  secret  of  Jesus  with  extraordinary  force,  with 
intuitive  sense  that  here  was  salvation ;  and  who  really 
cared  for  nothing  else,  though  ecclesiastical  dogma,  too, 
they  professed  to  believe,  and  sincerely  thought  they  did 
believe, — but  their  heart  was  elsewhere.  These  are  they 
u  2 


292  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

who  '  received  the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,'  who   ■ 
perceived  how  simple  a  thing  Christianity  was,  though  so 
inexhaustible,   and   who   are   therefore  '  the  greatest  in 
the  kingdom   of  God.'    And  they,  not  the  theological 
doctors,  are  the  true  lights  of  the   Christian  Church  ; 
not  Augustine,  Luther,  Bossuet,  Butler,  but  the  name- 
less author  of  the  Imitation,  or  Tauler,  or  St.  Francis  of 
Sales,  or  Wilson  of  Sodor  and  Man.     Yet  not  only  these 
men,  but  the  whole  body  of  Christian  churches  and  sects 
always,   have  all    at  least    professed   the    method   and 
secret  of  Jesus,  and  to  some  extent  used  them.  And  when- 
ever these  were  used,  they  have  borne  their  natural  fruits 
of  joy  and  life ;   and  this  joy  and   this  life   have    been 
taken  to  flow  from  the  ecclesiastical  dogma  held  along 
with  them,  and  to  sanction  and  prove  it.     And  people, 
eager  to  praise  the  bridge  which  carried  them  over  from 
death  to  life,  have  taken   this   dogma  for  the   bridge, 
or  part  of  the  bridge,  that  carried  them  over,  and  have 
eagerly  praised  it.      Thus  religion  has  been  made  to 
stand  on  its  apex  instead  of  its  base  ;   righteousness  is 
supported  on  ecclesiastical  dogma,  instead  of  ecclesias- 
tical dogma  being  supported  on  righteousness. 

But  in  the  beginning  it  was  not  so.  Because  righteous- 
ness is  eternal,  necessary,  life-giving,  therefore  the  mighty 
'  not  ourselves  which  makes   for  righteousness '  was  the 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  293 

Eternal,  Israel's  God  ;  was  all-powerful,  all-merciful ; 
sends  his  Messiah,  elects  his  people,  estabHshes  his 
kingdom,  receives  into  everlasting  habitations.  But  gra- 
dually this  petrifies,  gradually  it  is  more  and  more  added 
to ;  until  at  last,  because  righteousness  was  originally 
perceived  to  be  eternal,  necessary,  life-giving,  we  find 
ourselves  '  worshipping  One  God  in  Trinity  and  Trinity 
in  Unity,  neither  confounding  the  Persons  nor  dividing 
the  Substance.'  And  then  the  original  order  is  re- 
versed. Because  there  is  One  God  in  Trinity  and 
Trinity  in  Unity,  who  receives  into  everlasting  habita- 
tions, estabHshes  his  kingdom,  elects  his  people,  sends 
his  Messiah,  is  all-merciful,  all-powerful,  Israel's  God, 
the  Eternal, — therefore  righteousness  is  eternal,  neces- 
sary, life-giving.  And  shake  the  belief  in  the  One  God  in 
Trinity  and  Trinity  in  Unity,  the  belief  in  righteousness 
is  shaken,  it  is  thought,  also.  Whereas  righteousness 
and  the  God  of  righteousness,  the  God  of  the  Bible, 
are  in  truth  quite  independent  of  the  God  of  ecclesias- 
tical dogma,  the  work  of  critics  of  the  Bible, — critics  un- 
derstanding neither  what  they  say  nor  whereof  they  affirm. 

4- 
Nor  did  the  Reformation  and  Protestantism  much  mend 
the  work  of  these  critics ;  the  time  was  not  yet  ripe  for  it. 


294  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Protestantism,  nevertheless,  was  a  strenuous  and  noble 
effort  at  improvement ;  for  it  was  an  effort  of  return  to 
the  *  method  '  of  Jesus, — that  leaven  which  never,  since 
he  set  it  in  the  world,  has  ceased  or  can  cease  to  work. 
Catholicism,  we  have  said,  laid  hold  on  the  '  secret '  of 
Jesus,  and  strenuously,  however  blindly,  employed  it ; 
this  is  the  grandeur  and  the  glory  of  Catholicism.  In 
like  manner  Protestantism  laid  hold  on  his  '  method,' 
and  strenuously,  however  bhndly,  employed  it;  and 
herein  is  the  greatness  of  Protestantism.  The  prelimi- 
nary labour  of  inwardness  and  sincerity  in  the  con- 
science of  each  individual  man,  which  was  the  method 
of  Jesus  and  his  indispensable  discipline  for  learning 
to  employ  his  secret  aright,  had  fallen  too  much  out 
of  view ;  obedience  had  in  a  manner  superseded  it.  Pro- 
testantism drew  it  into  light  and  prominence  again ; 
was  even,  one  may  say,  over-absorbed  by  it,  so  as  to 
leave  too  much  out  of  view  the  *  secret.'  This,  if  one 
would  be  just  both  to  Catholicism  and  to  Protestantism, 
is  the  thing  to  bear  in  mind :  Protestantism  had  hold  of 
Christ's  '  method '  of  inwardness  and  sincerity,  Catholi- 
cism had  hold  of  his  '■  secret '  of  self-renouncement.  The 
chief  word  with  Protestantism  is  the  word  of  the  method  : 
repcjitance,  conversion  ;  the  chief  word  with  Catholicism 
is  the  word  of  the  secret  :  peace,  joy. 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  295 

And  since,  though  the  method  and  the  secret  are 
equally  indispensable,  the  secret  may  be  said  to  have  in 
it  more  of  practice  and  conduct,  Catholicism  may  claim 
perhaps  to  have  more  of  religion.  On  the  other  hand, 
Protestantism  has  more  light;  and,  as  the  method  of 
inwardness  and  sincerity,  once  gained,  is  of  general 
appHcation,  and  a  power  for  all  the  purposes  of  life, 
Protestantism,  we  can  see,  has  been  accompanied  by 
most  prosperity.  And  here  is  the  answer  to  Mr.  Buckle's 
famous  parallel  between  Spain  and  Scotland,  that  parallel 
which  every  one  feels  to  be  a  sophism.  Scotland  has 
had,  to  make  her  different  from  Spain,  the  ^method' 
of  Jesus ;  and  though,  in  theology,  Scotland  may  have 
turned  it  to  no  great  account,  she  has  found  her  account 
in  it  in  almost  everything  else.  Catholicism,  again,  has  had, 
perhaps,  most  happiness.  When  one  thinks  of  the  bitter 
and  contentious  temper  of  Puritanism, — temper  being, 
nevertheless,  such  a  vast  part  of  conduct^ — and  then  thinks 
of  St.  Theresa  and  her  sweetness,  her  never-sleeping  hatred 
of  '  detraction,'  one  is  tempted  almost  to  say,  that  there 
was  more  of  Jesus  in  St.  Theresa's  little  finger  than  in 
John  Knox's  whole  body.  Protestantism  has  the  method 
of  Jesus  with  his  secret  too  much  left  out  of  mind, 
Catholicism  has  his  secret  with  his  method  too  much  left 
out  of  mind  ;  neither  has  his  unerring  balance,  his  in- 


296  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

tuition,  his  sweet  reasotiableness.  But  both  have  hold  of  a 
great  truth,  and  get  from  it  a  great  power. 

And  many  of  the  reproaches  cast  by  one  on  the 
other  are  idle.  If  Catholicism  is  reproached  with 
being  indifferent  to  much  that  is  called  civilisation^ 
it  must  be  answered  :  So  was  Jesus.  If  Protestant- 
ism, with  its  private  judgment,  is  accused  of  open- 
ing a  wide  field  for  individual  fancies  and  mistakes, 
it  must  be  answered  :  So  did  Jesus  when  he  introduced 
his  method.  Private  judgment,  '  the  fimdavmital  and 
insensate  doctrine  of  Protestantism^  as  Joseph  de  Maistre 
calls  it,  is  in  truth  but  the  necessary  '  method,'  the 
eternally  incumbent  duty^  imposed  by  Jesus  himself, 
when  he  said  :  '  Judge  not  according  to  the  appearance, 
but  judge  righteous  judgment'  'Judge  righteous  judg- 
ment' is,  however,  the  duty  imposed  \  and  the  duty  is  not, 
whatever  many  Protestants  may  seem  to  think,  fulfilled  if 
the  judgment  be  wrong.  But  the  duty  of  inwardly  judging 
is  the  very  entrance  into  the  way  and  walk  of  Jesus. 

Luther,  then,  made  an  inward  verifying  movement,  the 
individual  conscience,  once  more  the  base  of  operations; 
and  he  was  right.  But  he  did  so  to  the  following  extent 
only.  When  he  found  the  priest  coming  between  the 
individual  believer  and  his  conscience,  standing  to  him 
in  the  stead  of  conscience,  he  pushed  the  priest  aside  and 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  297 

brought  the  believer  face  to  face  with  his  conscience  again. 
This  explains,  of  course,  his  battle  against  the  sale  of 
indulgences  and  other  abuses  of  the  like  kind;  but  it 
explains  also  his  treatment  of  that  cardinal  point  in  the 
Catholic  religious  system,  the  mass.  He  substituted  for  it, 
as  the  cardinal  point  in  the  Protestant  system,  justification 
by  faith.  The  miracle  of  Christ's  atoning  sacrifice,  satisfy- 
ing God's  wrath,  and  taking  off  the  curse  from  mankind,  is 
the  foundation  both  of  the  mass  and  of  the  famous  Lutheran 
tenet.  But,  in  the  mass,  the  priest  makes  the  miracle  over 
again  and  applies  its  benefits  to  the  believer.  In  the  tenet 
of  justification,  the  believer  is  himself  in  contact  with  the 
miracle  of  Christ's  atonement,  and  applies  Christ's  merits 
to  himself.  The  conscience  is  thus  brought  into  direct 
communication  with  Christ's  saving  act ;  but  this  saving 
act  is  still  taken, — just  as  popular  religion  conceived  it,  and 
as  formal  theology  adopted  it  from  popular  religion, — as  a 
miracle,  the  miracle  of  the  Atonement.  This  popular  and 
imperfect  conception  of  the  sense  of  Christ's  death,  and 
in  general  the  whole  inadequate  criticism  of  the  Bible 
involved  in  the  Creeds,  underwent  at  the  Reformation 
no  scrutiny  and  no  change.  Luther's  actual  applica- 
tion, therefore,  of  the  '  method '  of  Jesus  to  the  inner 
body  of  dogma,  developed  as  we  have  seen,  which  he 
found  regnant,  proceeded  no  farther  than  this. 


298  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Kndi  justification  by  faith ^  our  being  saved  by  *  giving 
our  hearty  consent  to  Christ's  atoning  work  on  our  be- 
half,' by  '  pleading  simply  the  blood  of  the  covenant,' 
Luther  made  the  essential  matter  not  only  of  his  own 
religious  system  but  of  the  entire  New  Testament.  We 
must  be  enabled,  he  said,  and  we  are  enabled,  to  distin- 
guish among  the  books  of  the  Bible  those  which  are  the 
best;  now,  those  are  the  best  which  show  Christ,  and  teach 
what  would  be  enough  for  us  to  know  even  if  no  other 
parts  of  the  Bible  existed.  And  this  ezmigelical  element, 
as  it  has  been  called,  this  fundamental  thought  of  the 
Gospel,  is,  for  Luther,  our  *  being  justified  by  the  alone 
merits  of  Christ.'  This  is  the  doctrine  of  'passive  or 
Christian  righteousness,'  as  Luther  is  fond  of  naming  it, 
which  consists  in  'doing  nothing,  but  simply  knowing  and 
believing  that  Christ  is  gone  to  the  Father  and  we  see 
him  no  more  ;  that  he  sits  in  Heaven  at  the  right  hand 
of  the  Father,  not  as  our  judge,  but  made  unto  us  by  God 
wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification,  and  redemption ;  in 
sum,  that  he  is  our  high-priest,  making  intercession  for  us.' 
Every  one  will  recognise  the  consecrated  watchwords  of 
Protestant  theology. 

Such  is  Luther's  criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  oi 
its  fundamental  thought ;  and  he  picks  out,  as  the  kernel 
and  marrow  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Fourth  Gospel 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  299 

and  the  First  Epistle  by  the  author  of  this  Gospel,  St. 
Paul's  Epistles, — in  especial  those  to  the  Romans,  Gala- 
tians,  and  Ephesians, — and  the  First  Epistle  of  St.  Peter. 
Now,  the  common  complaint  against  Luther  is  on  the 
score  of  his  audacity  in  thus  venturing  to  make  a  table 
of  precedence  for  the  equally  inspired  books  of  the  New 
Testament.  Yet  in  this  he  was  quite  right,  and  was  but 
following  the  method  of  Jesus,  if  the  good  news  conveyed 
in  the  whole  New  Testament  is,  as  it  is,  something 
definite,  and  all  parts  do  not  convey  it  equally.  Where 
he  was  wrong,  was  in  his  delineation  of  this  fundamental 
thought  of  the  New  Testament,  in  his  description  of  the 
good  news ;  and  few,  probably,  who  have  followed  us 
thus  far,  will  have  difficulty  in  admitting  that  he  was 
wrong  here,  and  quite  wrong.  And  this  has  been  the 
fault  of  Protestantism  generally  :  not  its  presumption  in 
interpreting  Scripture  for  itself, — for  the  Church  inter- 
preted it  no  better,  and  Jesus  has  thrown  on  each  indi- 
vidual the  duty  of  interpreting  it  for  himself, — but  that  it 
has  interpreted  it  wrong,  and  no  better  than  the  Church. 
'  Calvinism  has  borne  ever  an  inflexible  front  to  illusion 
and  mendacity,'  says  Mr.  Froude.  This  is  but  a  flourish  of 
rhetoric ;  for  the  Calvinistic  doctrine  is  in  itself,  like  the 
Lutheran  doctrine,  and  like  Catholic  dogma,  a  false 
criticism  of  the  Bible,  an  illusion.     And  the  Calvinistic 


300  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

and  Lutheran  doctrines  both  of  them  sin  in  the  same 
way;  not  by  using  a  method  which,  after  all,  is  the 
method  of  Jesus,  but  by  not  using  the  method  enough, 
by  not  applying  it  to  the  Bible  thoroughly,  by  keeping 
too  much  of  what  the  traditions  of  men  chose  to  tell  them. 

5- 

The  time  was  not  then  ripe  for  doing  more;  and  we,  if 
we  can  do  more,  have  the  fulness  of  time  to  thank  for  it, 
not  ourselves.  Yet  it  needs  all  one's  sense  of  the  not 
ourselves  in  these  things,  to  make  us  understand  how 
doctrines,  supposed  to  be  the  essence  of  the  Bible  by 
great  Catholics  and  by  great  Protestants,  should  ever 
have  been  supposed  to  be  so,  and  by  such  men. 

To  take  that  chief  stronghold  of  ecclesiasticism  and  sa- 
cerdotalism, the  institution  of  the  Eucharist.  As  Catholics 
present  it,  it  makes  the  Church  indispensable,  with  all  her 
apparatus  of  an  apostolical  succession,  an  authorised 
priesthood,  a  power  of  absolution.  Yet,  as  Jesus  founded 
it,  it  is  the  most  anti-ecclesiastical  of  institutions,  pulve- 
rising alike  the  historic  churches  in  their  beauty  and  the 
dissenting  sects  in  their  unloveliness ;— it  is  the  con- 
secration of  absolute  individualism.  '  This  cup  is  the 
new  covefiant  in  my  blood  which  is  shed  for  you.' 
When    Jesus   so   spoke,   what   did   he  mean,  what  was 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  301 

in  his  mind  ?  Undoubtedly  these  words  of  the  pro- 
phet Jeremiah:  'Behold  the  days  come,  saith  the 
Eternal,  that  I  will  make  a  new  covenant  with  the  house 
of  Israel,  not  according  to  the  covenant  that  I  made 
with  their  fathers,  which  covenant  they  brake;  but 
this  shall  be  the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with  the 
house  of  Israel :  After  those  days,  saith  the  Eternal,  I 
will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in 
their  hearts,  and  they  shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his 
neighbour  and  every  man  his  brother,  saying :  Know  the 
Eternal !  for  they  shall  all  know  me,  from  the  least  to  the 
greatest.'  No  more  scribes,  no  more  doctors,  no  more 
priests  !  the  crowning  act  in  the  *  secret '  of  Jesus  seals  at 
the  same  time  his  '  method,' — his  method  of  pure  inward- 
ness, individual  responsibility,  personal  religion. 

Take,  again,  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  Justification;  of 
trusting  in  the  alone  merits  of  Christ,  pleading  the  Blood 
of  the  Covenant,  imputed  righteousness.  In  our  railway 
stations  are  hung  up,  as  everyone  knows,  sheets  of  Bible- 
texts  to  catch  the  passer's  eye ;  and  very  profitable  admo- 
nitions to  him  they  in  general  are.  It  is  said  that  the 
thought  of  thus  exhibiting  them  occurred  to  Dr.  Marsh, 
a  venerable  leader  of  the  so-called  Evangelical  party  in 
our  Church,  the  party  which  specially  clings  to  the 
special  Protestant  doctrine  of  justification  ;  and  that  he 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


arranged  the  texts  we  daily  see.  And  there  is  one  which 
we  may  all  remember  to  have  often  seen.  Dr.  T^Iarsh 
asks  the  prophet  Micah's  question  :  *  Wherewith  shall  I 
come  before  the  Lord,  and  bow  myself  before  the  high 
God  ? '  and  he  answers  it  with  one  short  sentence  from  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews :  '  AVith  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ.'  This  is  precisely  the  popular  Protestant  notion 
of  the  Gospel;  and  we  are  all  so  used  to  it  that  Dr. 
Marsh's  application  of  the  text  has  probably  surprised 
no  one.  And  yet,  if  one  thinks  of  it,  how  astonishing 
an  application  it  is  !  For  even  the  Hebrew  Micah,  some 
seven  or  eight  centuries  before  Christ,  had  seen  that  this 
sort  of  gospel^  or  good  news,  was  none  at  all ;  for  even 
he  suggests  this  always  popular  notion  of  atoning  blood 
only  to  reject  it,  and  ends  :  '  He  hath  showed  thee,  O 
man,  what  is  good ;  and  what  doth  the  Eternal  require 
of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk 
humbly  with  thy  God?'  Sot  hat  the  Hebrew  Micah, 
nearly  three  thousand  years  ago,  under  the  old  dispensa- 
tion, was  far  in  advance  of  this  venerable  and  amiable 
coryphaeus  of  our  Evangelical  party  now,  under  the 
Christian  dispensation ! 

Dr,  Marsh  and  his  school  go  wrong,  it  will  be  said, 
through  their  false  criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  and 
we  have  ourselves  admitted  that  the  perfect  criticism  of 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  305 

the  New  Testament  is  extremely  difficult.  True,  \kiQ.  per- 
fect criticism ;  but  not  such  an  elementary  criticism  of 
it  as  shows  the  gospel  of  Dr.  Marsh  and  of  our  so-called 
Evangelical  Protestants  to  be  a  false  one.  For  great  as 
their  literary  inexperience  is,  and  unpractised  as  is  their 
tact  for  perceiving  the  manner  in  which  men  use 
words  and  what  they  mean  by  them,  one  would  think 
they  could  understand  such  a  plain  caution  against  mis- 
taking Christ's  death  for  a  miraculous  atonement  as  St. 
Paul  has  actually  given  them.  For  St.  Paul,  who  so 
admirably  seized  the  secret  of  Jesus,  who  preached 
Jesus  Christ  crucified  in  you,  and  who  placed  salvation  in 
being  able  to  say  I  am  crucified  with  Christ! — St.  Paul 
warns  us  clearly,  that  this  word  of  the  cross,  as  he  calls  it, 
is  so  simple,  being  neither  miracle  nor  metaphysics,  that 
it  would  be  thought  foolishness.  The  Jews  want  miracle, 
he  says,  and  the  Greeks  want  metaphysics,  but  I  preach 
Christ  crucified! — that  is,  the  '  secret'  of  Jesus,  as  we  call 
it.  The  Jews  want  miracle  ! — that  is  a  warning  against  Dr. 
Marsh's  or  Mr.  Spurgeon's  doctrine,  against  Evangelical 
Protestantism's  phantasmagories  of  the  '  Contract  in  the 
Council  of  the  Trinity,'  '  the  Atoning  Blood,'  and  '  Im- 
puted Righteousness.'  The  Greeks  want  metaphysics! — 
that  is  a  warning  against  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and 
Gloucester,  with  their  Aryan  genius  (if  so  ill-sounding  a 


304  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


word  as  Aryan,  spell  it  how  one  may,  can  ever  be 
properly  applied  to  our  bishops,  and  one  ought  not 
rather  to  say  Indo-European),  dressing  the  popular  doc- 
trine out  with  fine  speculations  about  the  Godhead  of 
the  Eternal  Son,  his  Consubstantiality  with  the  Father, 
and  so  on.  But  lue  preach,  says  St.  Paul,  Christ  cruci- 
fied!— to  Mr.  Spurgeon  and  to  popular  religion  a  stum- 
bling-block, to  the  bishops  and  to  learned  religion  foolish- 
ness ;  but  to  them  that  are  called,  Christ  the  power  of 
God  and  the  wisdom  of  God.  That  is,  we  preach  a  doc- 
trine, not  thaumaturgical  and  not  speculative,  but  prac- 
tical and  experimental ;  a  doctrine  which  has  no  meaning 
except  in  positive  application  to  conduct,  but  in  this  ap- 
plication is  inexhaustible. 

6. 

So  false,  so  astoundingly  false  (thus  one  is  inclined  to 
say  by  the  light  which  the  'Zeit-Geist'  is  beginning  to  hold 
out  over  them)  are  both  popular  and  learned  science  in 
their  criticism  of  the  Bible.  And  for  the  learned  science 
one  feels  no  tenderness,  because  it  has  gone  \vrong  with 
a  great  parade  of  exactitude  and  philosophy ;  whereas  all 
it  really  did  was  to  take  the  *  magnified  and  non- natural 
Man '  of  popular  religion  as  God,  and  to  take  Jesus  as 
his  son,  and  then  to  state  the  relations  between  them 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  305 

metaphysically.  No  difficulties  suggested  by  the  popular 
science  of  religion  has  this  learned  science  ever  removed, 
and  it  has  created  plenty  of  its  own. 

But  for  the  popular  science  of  religion  one  has, 
or  ought  to  have,  an  infinite  tenderness.  It  is  the  spon- 
taneous work  of  nature;  it  is  the  travail  of  the  human 
mind  to  adapt  to  its  grasp  and  employment  great  ideas 
of  which  it  feels  the  attraction,  but  for  which,  except  as 
given  to  it  by  this  travail,  it  would  have  been  immature. 
The  imperfect  science  of  the  Bible,  formulated  in  the  so- 
called  Apostles'  Creed,  was  the  only  vehicle  by  which,  to 
generation  after  generation  of  men,  the  method  and  secret 
of  Jesus  could  gain  any  access ;  and  in  this  sense  we  may 
even  call  it,  taking  the  point  of  view  of  popular  theology, 
Provide?itiaL  And  this  rude  criticism  is  full  of  poetry, 
and  in  this  poetry  we  have  been  all  nursed.  To  call  it, 
as  many  of  our  philosophical  Liberal  friends  are  fond  of 
calling  it,  a  '  degrading  superstition,'  is  as  untrue  as  it  is 
a  poor  compliment  to  human  nature,  which  produced 
this  criticism  and  used  it.  It  is  an  Aberglaube,  or  extra 
belief  and  fairy-tale,  produced  by  taking  certain  great 
names  and  great  promises  too  literally  and  materially; 
but  it  is  not  a  degrading  superstition. 

Protestants,    on    their    part,    have    no    difficulty    in 
calling  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  mass  '  a  degrading 

X 


3o6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

superstition.'  It  is  indeed  a  rude  and  blind  criticism  of 
Christ's  words  :  He  that  eateth  me  shall  live  by  me.  But 
once  admit  the  miracle  of  the  '  atoning  sacrifice/  once 
move  in  this  order  of  ideas,  and  what  can  be  more 
natural  and  beautiful  than  to  imagine  this  miracle  every- 
day repeated,  Christ  offered  in  thousands  of  places, 
everywhere  the  believer  enabled  to  enact  the  work 
of  redemption  and  unite  himself  with  the  Body 
whose  sacrifice  saves  him  ?  And  the  effect  of  this  belief 
has  been  no  more  degrading  than  the  beHef  itself.  The 
fourth  book  of  the  Imitation^  which  treats  of  The  Sacra- 
ment of  the  Altar,  is  of  later  date  and  lesser  merit 
than  the  three  books  which  precede  it ;  but  it  is  worth 
while  to  quote  from  it  a  few  words  for  the  sake  of 
the  testimony  they  bear  to  the  practical  operation,  in 
many  cases  at  any  rate,  of  this  belief.  *  To  us  in  our 
weakness  thou  hast  given,  for  the  refreshment  of  mind 
and  body,  thy  sacred  Body.  The  devout  communicant 
thou,  my  God,  raisest  from  the  depth  of  his  own  dejec- 
tion to  the  hope  of  thy  protection,  and  with  a  hitherto 
unknown  grace  renewest  him  and  enlightenest  him 
within ;  so  that  they  who  at  first,  before  this  Communion, 
had  felt  themselves  distressed  and  affectionless,  after  the 
refreshment  of  this  meat  and  drink  from  heaven  find 
themselves  changed  to  a  new  and  better  man.     For  this 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  307 

most  high  and  worthy  Sacrament  is  the  saving  health  of 
soul  and  body,  the  medicine  of  all  spiritual  languor ; 
by  it  my  vices  are  ciwed^  my  passions  bridled,  temptations 
are  conquered  or  diminished,  a  larger  grace  is  infused,  the 
begitinings  of  virtue  are  made  to  grow,  faith  is  co?7firmed, 
hope  strengthened,  and  charity  takes  fire  and  dilates  into 
flame.^  So  little  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Mass  to  be  hastily 
called  '  a  degrading  superstition,'  either  in  its  character  or 
in  its  working. 

But  it  is  false!  sternly  breaks  in  the  Evangelical  Pro- 
testant. O  Evangelical  Protestant,  is  thine  own  doc- 
trine, then,  so  true?  As  the  Romish  doctrine  of  the 
mass,  the  Real  Presence,  is  a  rude  and  bhnd  criticism 
of  :  He  that  eateth  me  shall  live  by  me;  so  the  Protestant 
tenet  of  Justification,  *  pleading  the  Blood  of  the  Cove- 
nant,' is  a  rude  and  blind  criticism  of:  The  Son  of  Man 
came  to  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  many ; — it  is  a  taking 
of  the  words  of  Scripture  literally  and  unintelligently. 
And  our  friends,  the  -  philosophical  Liberals,  are  not 
slow  to  call  this,  too,  a  degrading  superstition,  just  as 
Protestants  call  the  doctrine  of  the  Mass  a  degrading 
superstition.  We  say,  on  the  contrary,  that  a  degrading 
superstition  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  is.  In  im- 
agining a  sort  of  infinitely  magnified  and  improved  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  with  a  race  of  vile  offenders  to  deal  with, 
X  2 


3o8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

whom  his  natural  goodness  would  incline  him  to  let  off, 
only  his  sense  of  justice  will  not  allow  it ;  then  a 
younger  Lord  Shaftesbury,  on  the  scale  of  his  father  and 
very  dear  to  him,  who  might  live  in  grandeur  and  splen- 
dour if  he  liked,  but  who  prefers  to  leave  his  home,  to 
go  and  live  among  the  race  of  offenders,  and  to  be  put 
to  an  ignominious  death,  on  condition  that  his  merits  shall 
be  counted  against  their  demerits,  and  that  his  father's 
goodness  shall  be  restrained  no  longer  from  taking  effect, 
but  any  offender  shall  be  admitted  to  the  benefit  of  it  on 
simply  pleading  the  satisfaction  made  by  the  son ; — and 
then,  finally,  a  third  Lord  Shaftesbury,  still  on  the  same 
high  scale,  who  keeps  very  much  in  the  background,  and 
works  in  a  very  occult  manner,  but  very  efficaciously 
nevertheless,  and  who  is  busy  in  applying  everywhere  the 
benefits  of  the  son's  satisfaction  and  the  father's  good- 
ness ; — in  an  imagination,  I  say,  such  as  this,  there  is 
nothing  degrading,  and  this  is  precisely  the  Protestant 
story  oi  Justification.  And  how  awe  of  the  first  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  gratitude  and  love  towards  the  second,  and 
earnest  co-operation  with  the  third,  may  fill  and  rule 
men's  hearts  so  as  to  transform  their  conduct,  we  need 
not  go  about  to  show,  for  we  have  all  seen  it  with 
our  eyes.  Therefore  in  the  practical  working  of  this 
tenet    there    is    nothing    degrading;    any    more     than 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  309 

there  is  anything  degrading  in  the  tenet  as  an  imagi- 
native conception.  And  looking  to  the  infinite  impor- 
tance of  getting  right  conduct, — three-fourths  of  human  Hfe, 
— estabhshed,  and  to  the  inevitable  anthropomorphism 
and  extra-hdief  of  men  in  dealing  with  ideas,  one  might 
well  hesitate  to  attack  an  anthropomorphism  or  an  extra- 
belief  by  which  men  helped  themselves  in  conduct,  merely 
because  an  anthropomorphism  or  an  extra-belief  it  is,  so 
long  as  it  served  its  purpose,  so  long  as  it  was  firmly  and 
undoubtingly  held,  and  almost  universally  prevailing. 

But,  after  all,  the  question  sooner  or  later  arises  in 
respect  to  a  matter  taken  for  granted,  like  the  Catholic 
doctrine  of  the  Mass  or  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  Justifi- 
cation :  Is  it  sure  ?  can  what  is  here  assumed  be  verified! 
And  this  is  the  real  objection  both  to  the  Catholic  and 
Protestant  doctrine  as  a  basis  for  conduct ; — not  that  it  is 
a  degrading  superstition,  but  that  it  is  not  sure,  that  it 
assumes  what  cannot  be  verified. 

For  a  long  time  this  objection  occurred  to  scarcely  any- 
body. And  there  are  still,  and  for  a  long  time  yet  there 
will  be,  many  to  whom  it  does  not  occur.  In  particular,  on  • 
those  '  devout  women '  who  in  the  history  of  religion 
have  at  all  times  played  a  part  in  many  respects  so 
beautiful  but  in  some  respects  so  mischievous, — on 
them,  and  on  a  certain   number   of  men  like  them,  it 


3IO 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


has  and  can  as  yet  have,  so  far  as  one  can  see,  no  effect 
at  all.  Who  that  watches  the  energumens  during  the 
celebration  of  the  Communion  at  some  Ritualistic  church, 
their  gestures  and  behaviour,  the  floor  of  the  church 
strewn  with  what  seem  to  be  the  dying  and  the  dead, 
progress  to  the  altar  almost  barred  by  forms  suddenly 
dropping  as  if  they  were  shot  in  battle, — who  that  ob- 
serves this  delighted  adoption  of  vehement  rites,  till 
yesterday  unknown,  adopted  and  practised  now  with  all 
that  absence  of  tact,  measure,  and  correct  perception  in 
things  of  form  and  manner,  all  that  slowness  to  see  when 
they  are  making  themselves  ridiculous,  which  belongs  to 
the  people  of  our  English  race, — who,  I  say,  that  marks 
this  can  doubt,  that  for  a  not  small  portion  of  the  reli- 
gious community  a  difficulty  to  the  intelligence  will  for  a 
long  time  yet  be  no  difficulty  at  all  ?  With  their  mental 
condition  and  habits,  given  a  story  to  which  their  reli- 
gious emotions  can  attach  themselves,  and  the  famous 
Credo  qina  ineptiun  will  hold  good  with  them  still.  To 
think  they  know  what  passed  in  the  Council  of  the 
Trinity  is  not  hard  to  them ;  they  could  easily  think 
they  even  knew  what  were  the  hangings  of  the  Trinity's 
council-chamber. 

Arbitrary  and  unsupported,  however,  as  the  story  they 
have  taken  up  with  may  be,  yet  it  puts  them  in  connexion 


ABERGLAUBE  RE-INVADING.  Zii 


with  the  Bible  and  the  religion  of  the  Bible,— that  is, 
with  righteousness  and  with  the  method  and  secret  of 
Jesus.  These  are  so  clear  in  the  Bible  that  no  one  who 
uses  it  can  help  seeing  them  there ;  and  of  these  they  do 
take  for  their  use  something,  though  on  a  wrong  ground. 
But  these,  so  far  as  they  are  taken  into  use,  are  saving. 


312  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER  X. 

OUR  'masses'  and  the  eible. 

Many,  however,  and  of  a  much  stronger  and  more 
important  sort,  there  now  are,  who  will  not  thus  take 
on  trust  the  story  which  is  made  the  ground  for 
putting  ourselves  in  connexion  \vith  the  Bible  and 
learning  to  use  its  religion  ;  be  it  the  story  of  the  divine 
authority  of  the  Church,  as  in  Catholic  countries,  or, — as 
generally  with  us, — the  story  of  three  Lord  Shaftesburys 
standing  on  its  own  merits.  Is  what  this  story  asserts  tr^le^ 
they  are  beginning  to  ask;  can  it  be  verified? — since 
experience  proves,  they  add,  that  whatever  for  man  is 
true,  man  can  verify.  And  certainly  the  fairy-tale  of  the 
three  Lord  Shaftesburys  no  man  can  verify.  They  find 
this  to  be  so,  and  then  they  say:  The  Bible  takes  for 
granted  this  story  and  depends  on  the  truth  of  it ;  what> 
then,  can  rational  people  have  to  do  with  the  Bible  ?  So 
they  get  rid,  to  be  sure,  of  a  false  ground  for  using  the 
Bible,  but  they  at  the  same  time  lose  the  Bible  itself,  and 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.        313 

the  true  religion  of  the  Bible :  righteousness,  and  the 
method  and  secret  of  Jesus.  And  those  who  lose  this 
are  the  masses,  as  they  are  called ;  or  rather  they  are  what 
is  most  strenuous,  intelligent,  and  alive  among  the  masses, 
and  what  will  give  the  signal  for  the  rest  to  follow. 

This  is  what  everyone  sees  to  constitute  the  special 
moral  feature  of  our  times  :  the  masses  are  losing  the 
Bible  and  its  religion.  At  the  Renascence,  many  culti- 
vated wits  lost  it ;  but  the  great  solid  mass  of  the  common 
people  kept  it,  and  brought  the  world  back  to  it  after  a 
start  had  seemed  to  be  made  in  quite  another  direction. 
But  now  it  is  the  people  which  is  getting  detached 
from  the  Bible  ;  the  masses  can  no  longer  be  relied  on  to 
counteract  what  the  cultivated  wits  are  doing,  and  stub- 
bornly to  make  clever  men's  extravagances  and  aberra- 
tions, if  about  the  Bible  they  commit  them,  of  no  avail. 
When  our  philosophical  Liberal  friends  say,  that  by  uni- 
versal suffrage,  public  meetings,  Church-disestablishment, 
marrying  one's  deceased  wife's  sister,  secular  schools,  in- 
dustrial development,  man  can  very  well  live ;  and  that 
if  he  studies  the  writings,  say,  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer 
into  the  bargain,  he  will  be  perfect,  he  will  have 
*  in  modern  and  congenial  language  the  truisms  com- 
mon to  all  systems  of  morality,'  and  the  Bible  is  be- 
come   quite   old-fashioned   and  superfluous  for    him; — • 


314  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

when  our  philosophical  friends  now  say  this,  the  masses, 
far  from  checking  them,  are  disposed  to  applaud  them 
to  the  echo.  Yet  assuredly,  of  conduct,  which  is  more 
than  three-fourths  of  human  life,  the  Bible,  whatever 
people  may  thus  think  and  say,  is  the  great  inspirer ;  so 
that  from  the  great  inspirer  of  more  than  three-fourths 
of  human  life  the  masses  of  our  society  seem  now  to 
be  cutting  themselves  off.  This  promises,  certainly, 
if  it  does  not  already  constitute,  a  very  unsettled  con- 
dition of  things.  And  the  cause  of  it  lies  in  the  Bible 
being  made  to  depend  on  a  story,  or  set  of  asserted 
facts,  which  it  is  impossible  to  verify ;  and  which  hard- 
headed  people,  therefore,  treat  as  either  an  imposture, 
or  a  fairy-tale  that  discredits  all  which  is  found  in  con- 
nexion with  it. 


Now  if  we  look  attentively  at  the  story,  or  set  of 
asserted  but  unverified  and  unverifiable  facts,  which  we 
have  summarised  in  popular  language  above,  and  which 
is  alleged  as  the  basis  of  the  Bible,  we  shall  find  that  the 
difficulty  really  lies  all  in  one  point.  The  whole  difficulty  is 
with  the  elder  Lord  Shaftesbury.  If  he  could  be  verified, 
the  data  we  have  are,  possibly,  enough  to  warrant  our  ad- 
mitting the  truth  of  the  rest  of  the  story.     It  is  singular 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND    THE  BIBLE.        315 


how  few  people  seem  to  see  this,  though  it  is  really  quite 
clear.  The  Bible  is  supposed  to  assume  a  great  Personal 
First  Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and  intel- 
ligent Governor  of  the  Universe ;  a  sort  of  elder  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  as  we  call  him,  infinitely  magnified.  This  is 
the  God,  also,  of  natural  religion,  as  people  call  it;  and  this 
supposed  certainty  learned  reasoners  take,  and  render  it 
more  certain  still  by  considerations  of  causality,  identity, 
existence,  and  so  on.  These,  however,  are  not  found  to 
help  the  certainty  much ;  but  a  certainty  in  itself  the 
great  Personal  First  Cause,  the  God  of  both  natural  and 
revealed  religion,  is  supposed  to  be. 

Then,  to  this  given  beginning  all  that  the  Bible  de- 
livers has  to  fit  itself  on.  And  so  arises  the  account 
of  the  God  of  'the  Old  Testament,  and  of  Christ  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  of  the  incarnation  and  atone- 
ment, and  of  the  sacraments,  and  of  inspiration,  and 
of  the  church,  and  of  eternal  punishment  and  eternal 
bliss,  as  theology  presents  them.  But  difficulties  strike 
people  in  this  or  that  of  these  doctrines ;  the  incarnation 
seems  incredible  to  one,  the  vicarious  atonement  to 
another,  the  real  presence  to  a  third,  inspiration  to  a 
fourth,  eternal  punishment  to  a  fifth,  and  so  on.  And 
they  set  to  work  to  make  religion  more  pure  and  rational, 
as  they  suppose,  by  pointing  out  that  this  or  that  of  these 


3i6  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

doctrines  is  false,  that  it  must  be  a  mistake  of  theolo- 
gians j  and  by  interpreting  the  Bible  so  as  to  show  that 
the  doctrine  is  not  really  there.  The  Unitarians  are, 
perhaps,  the  great  people  for  this  sort  of  partial  and 
local  rationalising  of  religion ;  for  taking  what  here 
and  there  on  the  surface  seems  to  conflict  most  with 
common  sense,  arguing  that  it  cannot  be  in  the  Bible 
and  getting  rid  of  it,  and  professing  to  have  thus  relieved 
religion  of  its  difficulties.  And  now,  when  there  is  much 
loosening  of  authority  and  tradition,  much  impatience  of 
what  conflicts  with  common  sense,  the  Unitarians  are 
beginning  confidently  to  give  themselves  out  as  the 
Church  of  the  Future. 

But  in  all  this  there  is  in  reality  a  good  deal  of  what 
we  must  call  intellectual  shallowness.  For,  granted  that 
there  are  things  in  a  system  which  are  puzzling,  yet  they 
belong  to  a  system;  and  it  is  childish  to  pick  them  out  by 
themselves  and  reproach  them  with  error,  when  you  leave 
untouched  the  basis  of  the  system  where  they  occur,  and 
indeed  admit  it  for  sound  yourself.  The  Unitarians  are 
very  loud  about  the  unreasonableness  and  unscripturalness 
of  the  common  doctrine  of  the  Atonement.  But  in  the 
Socinian  Catechism  it  stands  written  :  '  It  is  necessary  for 
salvation  to  know  that  God  is ;  and  to  know  that  God  is, 
is  to  be  firmly  persuaded  that  there  exists  in  reality  some 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND    THE  BIBLE.        317 

One,  who  has  supreme  dominion  over  all  things.'  Presently 
afterwards  it  stands  written,  that  among  the  testimonies 
to  Christ  are, '  miracles  very  great  and  immense,'  miracida 
admodum  magna  et  imvwisa.  Now,  with  the  One  Supreme 
Governor,  and  miracles,  given  to  start  with,  it  may  fairly  be 
urged  that  the  construction  put  by  common  theology  on 
the  Bible  data,  which  we  call  the  story  of  the  three  Lord 
Shaftesburys,  and  in  which  the  Atonement  fills  a  pro- 
minent place,  is  the  natural  and  legitimate  construction 
to  put  on  them,  and  not  unscriptural  at  all.  Neither  is 
it  unreasonable ;  in  a  system  of  things  where  the  Supreme 
Governor  and  miracles,  or  even  where  the  Supreme 
Governor  without  miracles,  are  already  given. 

And  this  is  Butler's  great  argument  in  the  Analogy.  You 
all  concede,  he  says  to  his  deistical  adversaries,  a  supreme 
Personal  First  Cause,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor 
of  the  universe ;  this,  you  and  I  both  agree,  is  the  order  of 
nature.  But  you  are  offended  at  certain  things  in  reve- 
lation ; — that  is,  at  things,  Butler  means,  like  the  story  of 
the  three  Lord  Shaftesburys  as  theology  collects  it  from  the 
Bible.  Well,  I  will  show  you,  he  says,  that  in  your  and 
my  admitted  system  of  nature  there  are  just  as  great  diffi- 
culties as  in  the  system  of  revelation.  And  he  does 
show  it ;  and  by  adversaries  such  as  his,  who  grant  what 
the  Deist  or  Socinian  grants,  he  never  has  been  answered, 


3i8  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

he  never  can  be  answered.  The  spear  of  Butler's 
reasoning  will  even  follow  and  transfix  the  Duke  of 
Somerset,  who  dislikes  so  much  in  the  Bible,  but  '  retires 
into  one  unassailable  fortress, — faith  in  God.' 

The  only  question,  perhaps,  is  whether  Butler  as 
an  Anglican  bishop  puts  an  adequate  construction  upon 
what  Bible-revelation,  this  basis  of  the  Supreme  Governor 
being  supposed,  may  be  allowed  to  be  ;  whether  Catholic 
dogma  is  not  the  truer  construction  to  put  upon  it.  Dr. 
Newman  urges,  fairly  enough :  Butler  admits,  analogy  is  in 
some  sort  violated  by  the  fact  of  revelation ;  only,  with  the 
precedent  of  natural  religion  given,  we  have  to  own  that 
the  difficulties  against  revelation  are  not  greater  than 
against  this  precedent,  and  therefore  the  admission  of  this 
precedent  of  natural  religion  may  well  be  taken  to  clear 
them.  And  must  we  not  go  farther  in  the  same  way, 
says  Dr.  Newman,  and  own  that  the  precedent  of  reve- 
lation, too,  may  be  taken  to  cover  more  than  itself;  and  that 
as,  the  Supreme  Governor  being  given,  it  is  credible  that 
the  Incarnation  is  true,  so,  the  Incarnation  being  true,  it 
is  credible  that  God  should  not  have  left  the  world  to 
itself  after  Christ  and  his  Apostles  disappeared,  but 
should  have  lodged  divine  insight  in  the  Church  and  its 
visible  head  ?  So  pleads  Dr.  Newman  j  and  if  it  be 
said  that  facts  are  against  the  infallibility  of  the  Church, 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.        319 


or  that  Scripture  is  against  it,  yet  to  wide,  immense  things 
like  facts  and  Scripture,  a  turn  may  easily  be  given  which 
makes  them  favour  it ;  and  so  an  endless  field  for  dis- 
cussion is  opened,  and  no  issue  is  possible.  For  once 
launched  on  this  Hne  of  hypothesis  and  inference,  with  a 
Supreme  Governor  assumed,  and  the  task  thrown  upon 
us  of  making  out  what  he  means  us  to  infer  and  what 
we  may  suppose  him  to  do  and  to  intend,  one  of  us 
may  infer  one  thing  and  another  of  us  another,  and 
neither  can  possibly  prove  himself  to  be  right  or  his 
adversary  to  be  wrong. 

Only,  there  may  come  some  one,  who  says  that  the 
basis  of  all  our  inference,  the  Supreme  Governor,  is 
not  the  order  of  nature,  is  an  assumption,  and  not  a 
fact;  and  then,  if  this  is  so,  our  whole  superstructure 
falls  to  pieces  like  a  house  of  cards.  iVnd  this  is  just 
what  is  happening  at  present.  The  masses,  with 
their  rude  practical  instinct,  go  straight  to  the  heart 
of  the  matter.  They  are  told  there  is  a  great  Per- 
sonal First  Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and 
intelligent  Author  and  Governor  of  the  universe ; 
and  that  the  Bible  and  Bible-righteousness  come  to  us 
from  him.  Now,  they  do  not  begin  by  asking,  with  the 
intelligent  Unitarian,  whether  the  doctrine  of  the  Atone- 
ment is  worthy  of  this  moral  and  intelligent  Ruler ;  they 


320  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


begin  by  asking  what  proof  we  have  of  him  at  all. 
Moreover,  they  require  plain  experimental  proof,  such  as 
that  fire  bums  them  if  they  touch  it.  If  they  are  to 
study  and  obey  the  Bible  because  it  comes  from  the  Per- 
sonal First  Cause  who  is  Governor  of  the  universe,  they 
require  to  be  able  to  ascertain  that  there  is  this  Governor, 
just  as  they  are  able  to  ascertain  that  fire  burns.  And  if 
they  cannot  ascertain  it,  they  will  let  the  intelligent  Uni- 
tarian perorate  for  ever  about  the  Atonement  if  he  likes, 
but  they  themselves  pitch  the  whole  Bible  to  the  winds. 
Now,  it  is  remarkable  what  a  resting  on  mere  probabi- 
lities, or  even  on  less  than  probabiUties,  the  proof  for 
religion  comes,  in  the  hands  of  its  great  apologist,  Butler, 
to  be,  even  after  he  has  started  with  the  assumption  of 
his  moral  and  intelligent  Governor.  And  no  wonder; 
for  in  the  primary  assumption  itself  there  is  and  can 
be  nothing  experimental  and  clearly  known.  So  that  of 
Christianity,  as  Butler  grounds  it,  the  natural  criticism 
would  really  be  in  these  words  of  his  own :  '  Suppositions 
are  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  true,  because  not  incredible.' 
However,  Butler  maintains  that  in  matters  of  practice, 
such  as  religion,  this  is  not  so  ;  in  them  it  is  prudent, 
he  says,  to  act  on  even  a  supposition,  if  it  is  not  in- 
credible. Even  the  doubting  about  religion  implies,  he 
argues,  that  it  may  be  true.    Now,  in  matters  of  practice 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND    THE  BIBLE.        321 


we  are  bound  in  prudence,  he  says,  to  act  upon  what 
may  be  a  low  degree  of  evidence ;  yes,  '  even  though  it  be 
so  low  as  to  leave  the  mind  in  very  great  doicbt  what  is  the 
truth: 

Was  there  ever  such  a  way  of  establishing  righteous- 
ness heard  of?  And  suppose  we  tried  this  with  rude, 
hard,  downright  people,  with  the  masses,  who  for  what  is 
told  them  want  a  plain  experimental  proof,  such  as  that 
fire  will  burn  you  if  you  touch  it.  Whether  in  prudence 
they  ought  to  take  the  Bible  and  religion  on  a  low  degree 
of  evidence  or  not,  it  is  quite  certain  that  on  this  ground 
they  never  will  take  them.  And  it  is  quite  certain, 
moreover,  that  never  on  this  ground  did  Israel,  from 
whom  we  derive  our  religion,  take  it  himself  or  recommend 
it.  He  did  not  take  it  in  prudence,  because  he  found 
at  any  rate  a  low  degree  of  evidence  for  it ;  he  took  it 
in  rapture,  because  he  found  for  it  an  evidence  irresistible. 
But  his  own  words  are  the  best :  '■  Thou,  O  Eternal,  art 
the  thing  that  I  long  for ^  thou  art  my  hope  even  from  my 
youth ;  through  thee  have  I  been  /widen  up  ever  since  I 
was  born ;  there  is  nothing  sweeter  than  to  take  heed  unto 
the  commandments  of  the  Eternal.  The  Eternal  is  my 
strength^  my  heart  hath  trusted  in  him  and  I  am  helped; 
therefore  my  heart  danceth  for  Joy,  and  in  my  song  will  I 
praise  him,:    That  is  why  Israel  took  his  religion.     f1^,  Jt^v-r  -^r^ 


322  LITERATURE' AND  DOGMA. 

3- 

But  if  Israel  spoke  of  the  Eternal  thus,  it  was,  we  say, 
because  he  had  a  plain  experimental  proof  of  him.  God 
was  to  Israel  neither  an  assumption  nor  a  metaphysical 
idea ;  he  was  a  power  that  can  be  verified  as  much  as 
the  power  of  fire  to  bum  or  of  bread  to  nourish  :  the 
power,  7wt  ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteous?iess.  And 
the  greatness  of  Israel  in  religion,  the  reason  why  he  is 
said  to  have  had  religion  revealed  to  him,  to  have  been 
entrusted  with  the  oracles  of  God,  is  because  he  had  in 
such  extraordinary  force  and  vividness  the  perception  of 
this  power.  And  he  communicates  it  irresistibly  because 
he  feels  it  irresistibly ;  that  is  why  the  Bible  is  not  as 
other  books  that  inculcate  righteousness.  Israel  speaks 
of  his  intuition  as  still  feeling  it  to  be  an  intuition,  an 
experience ;  not  as  something  which  others  have  de- 
livered to  him,  nor  yet  as  a  piece  of  metaphysical  notion- 
building.  Anthropomorphic  he  is,  for  all  men  are,  and 
especially  men  not  endowed  with  the  Aryan  genius  for 
abstraction;  but  he  does  not  make  arbitrary  assertions 
which  can  never  be  verified,  like  our  popular  religion,  nor 
is  he  ever  pseudo-scientific,  like  our  learned  religion. 

He  is  credited  with  the  m.etaphysical  ideas  of  the  per- 
sonality of  God,  of  the  unity  of  God,  and  of  creation  as 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND    THE  BIBLE.        323 

opposed  to  evolution  j  ideas  depending,  the  first  two 
of  them,  on  notions  of  existence  and  of  identity,  the  last 
of  them,  on  the  notion  of  cause  and  design.  But  he  is 
credited  with  them  falsely.  All  the  countenance  he  gives 
to  the  metaphysical  idea  of  the  personality  of  God  is  given 
by  his  anthropomorphic  language,  in  which,  being  a  man 
himself,  he  naturally  speaks  of  the  Power,  with  which  he 
is  concerned,  as  a  man  also.  So  he  says  that  Moses  saw 
God's  hinder  parts  j  and  he  gives  just  as  much  coun- 
tenance to  the  scientific  assertion  that  God  has  hinder 
parts,  as  to  the  scientific  asserdon  of  God's  personality. 
That  is,  he  gives  no  countenance  at  all  to  either.  As 
to  his  asserting  the  unity  of  God  the  case  is  the  same.  He 
would  give,  indeed,  his  heart  and  his  worship  to  no  mani- 
festation of  power,  except  the  power  which  makes  for 
righfeousftess ;  but  he  affords  to  the  metaphysical  idea  of 
the  unity  of  God  no  more  countenance  than  this,  and  this 
is  none  at  all.  Then,  lastly,  as  to  the  idea  of  creation.  He 
viewed,  indeed,  all  order  as  depending  on  the  supreme 
order  of  righteousness,  and  all  the  fulness  and  beauty  of 
the  world  as  a  boon  added  to  that  holder  of  the  greatest 
of  all  boons  already,  the  righteous ;  this  is  as  much 
countenance  as  he  gives  to  the  famous  argument  from 
design,  or  to  the  doctrine  of  creation  as  opposed  to  evolu- 
tion.    And  it  is  none  at  all. 

Y  2 


324  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Free  as  is  his  use  of  anthropomorphic  language,  Israel 
had  far  too  keen  a  sense  of  reahty  not  to  shrink,  when 
he  comes  anywhere  near  to  the  notion  of  exact  speaking 
about  God,  from  affirmation,  from  professing  to  know  a 
whit  more  than  he  does  know.  '  Lo,  these  are  parts  of 
his  ways,'  he  says  of  what  he  has  experienced,  '  but  how 
little  aportiofi  is  known  ofhifn  /'  And  again  :  '  The  secret 
things  belo7ig  tmto  the  Eternal  our  God;  but  the  revealed 
things  belong  unto  us  and  to  our  children  for  ever  :  that 
we  may  do  all  the  words  of  this  law.'  How  different 
from  our  licence  of  full  and  particular  statement :  '  A 
Personal  First  Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral 
and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe  ! '  Israel  knew,  of 
the  Eternal  not  ourselves^  that  it  was  '  a  power  that  made 
for  righteousness.'  This  was  revealed  to  Israel  and  his 
children,  and  through  them  to  the  world  ;  all  the  rest 
about  the  Eternal  not  ours eleves  was  this  power's  own  secret. 
And  all  Israel's  language  about  this  power,  except  that 
//  7nakes  for  righteousness^  is  approximate  language, — the 
language  of  poetry  and  eloquence,  thrown  out  at  a  vast 
object  of  our  consciousness  not  fully  apprehended  by  it, 
but  extending  infinitely  beyond  it. 

This,  however,  was  '  a  revealed  thing,'  Israel  said,  to  him 
and  to  his  children  :  '  the  Eternal  7iot  ourselves  that  makes 
for  righteousness.'     And   now,  then,    let   us   go   to  the 


masses  with  what  Israel  really  did  say,  instead  of  what 
our  popular  and  our  learned  religion  may  choose  to  make 
him  say.  Let  us  announce,  not :  '  There  rules  a  great 
Personal  First  Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral 
and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,  and  therefore 
study  your  Bible  and  learn  to  obey  this  ! '  No ;  but 
let  us  announce :  '  There  rules  an  enduring  Power,  not 
ourselves,  which  makes  for  righteousness,  and  therefore 
study  your  Bible  and  learn  to  obey  this.'  For  if  we 
announce  the  other  instead,  and  they  reply  :  '  First  let 
us  verify  that  there  rules  a  great  Personal  First  Cause, 
who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Governor 
of  the  universe,' — what  are  we  to  answer?  We  cannot 
answer. 

But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  ask :  '•  How  are  we  to 
verify  that  there  rules  an  enduring  Power,  not  ourselves, 
which  makes  for  righteousness  ?' — we  may  answer  at  once  : 
*  How?  why,  as  you  verify  that  fire  burns, — by  experience! 
It  is  so  j  try  it  !  you  can  try  it ;  every  case  of  conduct^  of 
that  which  is  more  than  three-fourths  of  your  own  life 
and  of  the  life  of  all  mankind,  will  prove  it  to  you.  Dis- 
believe it,  and  you  will  find  out  your  mistake,  as  sure  as, 
if  you  disbelieve  that  fire  burns  and  put  your  hand,  into 
the   fire,   you   will  find   out   your  mistake.     Believe  it, 


326  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

and  you  will  find  the  benefit  of  it.'      This  is  the  first 
experience. 

But  then  they  may  go  on,  and  say  :  '  Why,  however,  even 
if  there  is  an  enduring  Power,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for 
righteousness,  should  we  study  the  Bible  that  we  may 
learn  to  obey  him  ? — will  not  other  teachers  or  books  do 
as  well  ? '  And  here  again  the  answer  is  :  '  Why  ? — why, 
because  he  is  revealed  in  Israel  and  the  Bible,  and  not 
by  other  teachers  and  books !  that  is,  there  is  infinitely 
more  of  him  there,  he  is  plainer  and  easier  to  come  at, 
and  incomparably  more  impressive.  If  you  want  to  know 
plastic  art,  you  go  to  the  Greeks  ;  if  you  want  to  know 
science,  you  go  to  the  Aryan  genius.  And  why  ?  Because 
they  have  the  specialty  for  these  things ;  for  making  us 
feel  what  they  are  and  giving  us  an  enthusiasm  for  them. 
Well,  and  so  have  Israel  and  the  Bible  a  specialty  for 
righteousness,  for  making  us  feel  what  it  is  and  giving  us 
an  enthusiasm  for  it.  And  here  again  it  is  experience 
that  we  invoke  :  try  it!  Having  convinced  yourself  that 
there  is  an  enduring  Power,  not  ourselves,  that  makes  for 
righteousness,  set  yourself  next  to  try  to  learn  more  about 
this,  and  to  feel  an  enthusiasm  for  this.  And  to  this 
end,  take  a  course  of  the  Bible  first,  and  then  a  course  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  Horace  Greeley,  Jeremy  Bentham,  and 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer;  see  which  has  most  effect,  which 


OUR   'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.        327 

satisfies  you  most,  which  gives  you  most  power.  Why,  the 
Bible  has  such  power  for  teaching  righteousness,  that  even 
to  those  who  come  to  it  with  all  sorts  of  false  notions 
about  the  God  of  the  Bible,  it  yet  teaches  righteousness, 
and  fills  them  with  the  love  of  it ;  how  much  more  those 
who  come  to  it  with  a  true  notion  about  the  God  of 
the  Bible  !     And  this  is  the  second  experience. 

4- 

Now  here,  at  the  beginning  of  things,  is  the  point,  we 
say,  where  to  apply  correction  to  our  current  theology,  if  we 
are  to  bring  the  religion  of  the  Bible  home  to  the  masses. 
It  is  of  no  use  beginning  lower  down,  and  amending  this 
or  that  ramification,  such  as  the  Atonement,  or  the  Real 
Presence,  or  Eternal  Punishment,  when  the  root  from 
which  all  springs  is  unsound.  Those  whom  it  most 
concerns  us  to  teach  will  never  interest  themselves  at 
all  in  our  amended  religion,  so  long  as  the  whole  thing 
appears  to  them  unsupported  and  in  the  air. 

Yet  that  original  conception  of  God,  on  which  all 
our  religion  is  and  must  be  grounded,  has  been  very 
little  examined,  and  very  few  of  the  controversies  which 
arise  in  religion  go  near  it.  Religious  people  say  solemnly, 
as  if  we  doubted  it,  that  '  he  that  cometh  to  God  must 
believe   that   He   is^   and  that   He    is  a    rewarder    of 


328  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


them  that  seek  Him  \ '  and  that  *  a  man  who  preaches 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  not  God  is  virtually  out  of  the  pale 
of  Christian  communion.'  We  entirely  agree  with  them  ; 
but  we  want  to  know  what  they  mean  by  God.  Now  on 
this  matter  the  state  of  their  thoughts  is,  to  say  the 
truth,  extremely  vague  ;  but  what  they  really  do  at  bottom 
mean  by  God  is,  in  general :  the  best  one  kfiows.  And  this 
is  the  soundest  definition  they  will  ever  attain  j  yet  scienti- 
fically it  is  not  a  satisfying  definition,  for  clearly  the  best  one 
k?iows  difiers  for  everybody.  So  they  have  to  be  more 
precise ;  and  when  they  collect  themselves  a  little,  they 
find  that  they  mean  by  God  a  magnified  and  no7i-7iatiiral 
7na7i.  But  this,  again,  they  can  hardly  say  in  so  many 
words  ;  therefore  at  last,  when  they  are  pressed,  they  col- 
lect themselves  all  they  can,  and  make  a  great  effort,  and 
out  they  come  with  their  piece  of  science  :  God  is  a  great 
Perso7ial  First  Cause,  who  thi7iks  and  loves,  the  77ioral  a7id 
i7itellige7it  Governor  of  the  tmiverse.  But  this  piece  of 
science  of  theirs  we  will  have  nothing  to  say  to,  for  we 
account  it  quite  hollow ;  and  we  say,  and  have  shown  (we 
think),  that  the  Bible,  rightly  read,  mil  have  nothing  to 
say  to  it  either.  Yet  the  whole  pinch  of  the  matter  is 
here ;  and  till  we  are  agreed  as  to  what  we  mean  by  God, 
we  can  never,  in  discussing  religious  questions,  understand 
one  another  or  discuss  seriously.     Yet,  as  we  have  said, 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.        329 


hardly  any  of  the  discussions  which  arise  in  reHgion  turn 
upon  this  cardinal  point.  This  is  what  cannot  but 
strike  one  in  that  torrent  of  petitioiies  principii  (for  so 
one  really  must  call  it)  in  the  shape  of  theological  letters 
from  clergymen,  which  pours  itself  every  week  in  the 
columns  of  the  Guardian.  They  all  employ  the  word 
God  with  such  extraordinary  confidence  !  as  if  '  a  great 
Personal  First  Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral 
and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  were  a  verifiable 
fact  given  beyond  all  question ;  and  we  had  now  only 
to  discuss  what  such  a  being  would  naturally  think 
about  Church  vestments  and  the  use  of  the  Athanasian 
Creed.  But  everything  people  say,  under  these  conditions, 
is  in  truth  quite  in  the  air. 

Even  those  who  have  treated  Israel  and  his  religion 
the  most  philosophically,  seem  not  to  have  enough  con- 
sidered that  so  wonderful  an  effect  must  have  had  some 
cause  to  account  for  it,  other  than  any  they  assign. 
Professor  Kuenen,  whose  excellent  History  of  the  Reli- 
gion of  IsraeP  ought  to  find  an  English  translator, 
suggests  that  the  Hebrew  religion  was  so  unlike  that 
of  any  other  Semitic  people  because  of  the  simple  and 

'  De  Godsdienst  van  Israel  tot  den  Ondergajig  van  den  Joodschen 
Staat  (The  Religion  of  Israel  till  the  Downfall  of  the  Jewish  State) ; 
Haarlem. 


330  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

austere  life  of  the  Beni-Israel  as  nomads  of  the  desert; 
or  because  they  did  not,  like  other  Semitic  people, 
put  a  feminine  divinity  alongside  of  their  masculine 
divinity,  and  thus  open  the  way  to  all  sorts  of  immorality. 
But  many  other  tribes  have  had  the  simple  and  austere 
life  of  nomads  of  the  desert,  without  its  bringing  them  to 
the  religion  of  Israel.  And,  if  the  Hebrews  did  not  put  a 
feminine  divinity  alongside  of  their  masculine  divinity, 
while  other  Semitic  people  did,  surely  there  must  have 
been  something  to  cause  this  difference  !  and  what  wc 
want  to  know  is  this  so??iething. 

And  to  this  somethings  I  say,  the  *  Zeit-Geist '  and 
a  prolonged  and  large  experience  of  men's  expressions, 
and  how  they  employ  them,  leads  us.  It  was  be- 
cause, while  other  people,  in  the  operation  of  that 
mighty  not  ou7'sclvcs  which  is  in  us  and  around  us,  saw  this 
thing  and  that  thing  and  many  things,  Israel  saw  in  it  one 
thing  only  : — that  it  made  for  conduct^  for  7'ightco7is?iess. 
And  it  does ;  and  conduct  is  nearly  the  whole  of  human 
life.  And  hence,  therefore,  the  extraordinary  reality  and 
power  of  Israel's  God  and  of  Israel's  religion.  And  the 
more  we  strictly  limit  oui  selves,  in  attempting  to  give  a 
scientific  account  of  God,  to  Israel's  authentic  intuition 
of  him,  and  say  that  he  is  '  the  Eternal  Power,  not  our- 
selves, that  makes  for  righteousness,'  the  more  real  and 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.        331 

profound  will  Israel's  words  about  God  become  to  us, 
for  we  can  then  verify  his  words  as  we  use  them. 

Eternal^  thou  hast  been  our  refuge  from  one  generation  to 
another  !  If  we  define  the  Eternal  to  ourselves,  '  a  great 
Personal  First  Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral 
and  intelligent  Governor  of  the  universe,'  we  can  never 
verify  that  this  has  from  age  to  age  been  a  refuge  to  men. 
But  if  we  define  the  Eternal^  '  the  enduring  power,  not 
ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteousness,'  then  we  can 
know  and  feel  the  truth  of  what  we  say  when  we  declare : 
Eternal,  thou  hast  been  our  refuge  fro7n  o?ie  generation  to 
another  !  For  in  all  the  history  ot  man  we  can  verify  it. 
Righteousness  has  been  salvation ;  and  to  verify  the  God 
of  Israel  in  man's  long  history  is  the  most  animating,  the 
most  exalting,  and  the  most  pure  of  delights.  Blessed 
is  the  Tiation  whose  God  is  the  Eternal!  is  a  text,  indeed, 
of  which  the  world  offers  to  us  the  most  inexhaustible  and 
the  most  marvellous  illustration. 

Nor  is  the  change  here  proposed,  in  itself,  any  difficult 
or  startling  change  in  our  habits  of  religious  thought,  but  a 
very  simple  one.  However,  simple  as  may  be  this  change 
which  is  made  high  up  and  at  the  outset,  it  undeniably 
governs  everything  farther  down.  Jesus  is  the  Son  of 
God  ;  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Spirit  of  truth  that  proceeds 
from  God.     What  God  %     '  A  great  Personal  First  Cause, 


332  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


who  thinks  and  loves,  the  moral  and  intelligent  Gover- 
nor of  the  universe  ?  ' — to  whom  Jesus  and  the  Holy- 
Spirit  are  related  in  the  way  described  in  the  Athanasian 
Creed,  so  that  the  operations  of  the  three  together  produce 
what  the  Westminster  divines  call  '  the  Contract  passed 
in  the  Council  of  the  Trinity,'  and  what  we,  for  plain- 
ness, describe  as  the  fairy-tale  of  the  three  Lord  Shaftes- 
burys  ?  This  is  all  in  the  air,  but  in  the  air  it  all  hangs 
together.  There  stand  the  Bible  words  !  how  you  con- 
strue them,  depends  entirely  on  the  definition  of  God 
you  start  with.  If  Jesus  is  the  Son  of  '  a  great  Personal 
First  Cause,'  then  the  words  of  the  Bible,  literally  taken, 
may  well  enough  lend  themselves  to  a  story  like  that  of 
the  three  Lord  Shaftesburys.  The  story  can  never  be 
verified  j  but  it  may  nevertheless  be  what  the  Bible 
means  to  say,  if  the  Bible  have  started,  as  theology 
starts,  with  the  '  Great  Personal  First  Cause.'  And  the 
story  may,  when  it  comes  to  be  examined,  have  many 
minor  difficulties,  have  things  to  baffle  us,  things  to  shock 
us ;  but  still  it  may  be  what  the  Bible  means  to  say. 
However,  the  masses  will  get  rid  of  all  minor  difficulties 
in  the  simplest  manner,  by  rejecting  the  Bible  altogether 
on  account  of  the  major  difficulty, — its  starting  with  an 
assumption  which  cannot  possibly  be  verified. 

But  suppose  the  Bible  is  discovered,  when  its  expressions 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.        333 

are  rightly  understood,  to  start  with  an  assertion  which 
can  be  verified :  the  assertion,  namely,  not  of  '  a  great 
Personal  First  Cause,'  but  of  '  an  enduring  Power,  not 
ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteousness.'  Then  by  the 
light  of  this  discovery  we  read  and  understand  all  the 
expressions  that  follow.  Jesus  comes  forth  from  this  en- 
during Power  that  makes  for  righteousness,  is  sent  by  this 
Power,  is  this  Power's  Son;  the  Holy  Spirit  proceeds  from 
this  same  Power,  and  so  on. 

Now,  from  the  innumerable  minor  difficulties  that 
attend  the  story  of  the  three  Lord  Shaftesburys,  this 
right  construction,  put  on  what  the  Bible  says  of  Jesus, 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is  free.  But  it  is  free 
from  the  major  difficulty  also  \  for  it  neither  depends  upon 
what  is  unverifiable,  nor  is  it  unverifiable  itself  That 
Jesus  is  the  Son  of  a  great  Personal  First  Cause  is  itself 
unverifiable ;  and  that  there  is  a  great  Personal  First  Cause 
is  unverifiable  too.  But  that  there  is  an  enduring 
power,  not  ourselves,  which  makes  for  righteousness,  is 
verifiable,  as  we  have  seen,  by  experience;  and  that 
Jesus  is  the  offspring  of  this  power  is  verifiable  from 
experience  also.  For  God  is  the  author  of  righteous- 
ness ;  now,  Jesus  is  the  son  of  God  because  he  gives  the 
method  and  secret  by  which  alone  is  righteousness 
possible.     And  that  he  does  give  this,   we  can  verify, 


334  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


again,  from  experience  :  it  is  so  !  try,  and  you  will  find 
it  to  be  so.  Try  all  the  ways  to  righteousness  you  can 
think  of,  and  you  will  find  that  no  way  brings  you  to  it 
except  the  way  of  Jesus,  but  that  this  way  does  bring  you 
to  it.  And,  therefore,  as  we  found  we  could  say  to  the 
masses  :  '  Attempt  to  do  without  Israel's  God  that  makes 
for  righteousness,  and  you  will  find  out  your  mistake  ! ' — 
so  we  find  we  can  now  go  on  farther,  and  say  :  'Attempt 
to  reach  righteousness  by  any  way  except  that  of  Jesus, 
and  you  will  find  out  your  mistake ! '  This  is  a  thing 
that  ca7i  prove  itself,  if  it  is  so ;  and  it  will  prove  itself, 
because  it  is  so. 

Thus  we  have  the  authority  of  both  Old  and  New 
Testament  placed  on  just  the  same  sohd  basis  as  the 
authority  of  the  injunction  to  take  food  and  rest :  namely, 
that  experience  proves  we  cannot  do  without  them.  And 
we  have  neglect  of  the  Bible  punished  just  as  putting 
one's  hand  into  the  fire  is  punished :  namely,  by  finding 
we  are  the  worse  for  it.  Only,  to  attend  to  this  experience 
about  the  Bible,  needs  more  steadiness  than  to  attend  to 
the  momentary  impressions  of  hunger,  fatigue,  and  pain  ; 
therefore  it  is  called /^///;,  and  counted  a  virtue.  But  the 
appeal  is  to  experience  in  this  case  just  as  much  as  in 
the  other ;  only  to  experience  of  a  far  deeper  and  greater 
kind. 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE,        335 

So  there  is  no  doubt  that  we  get  a  much  firmer,  nay  an 
impregnable,  ground  for  the  Bible,  and  for  recommending 
it  to  the  world,  if  we  put  the  construction  on  it  we  pro- 
pose. The  only  question  is :  Is  this  the  right  construc- 
tion to  put  on  it  ?  is  it  the  construction  which  properly 
belongs  to  the  Bible  ?  And  here,  again,  our  appeal  is  to 
the  same  test  which  we  have  employed  throughout,  the 
only  possible  test  for  men  to  employ, — the  test  of  reason 
and  experience.  Given  the  Bible- documents,  what,  it  is 
inquired,  is  the  right  construction  to  put  upon  them  ?  Is 
it  the  construction  we  propose  ?  or  is  it  the  construction 
of  the  theologians,  according  to  which  the  dogmas  of  the 
Trinity,  the  Incarnation,  the  Atonement,  and  so  on,  are 
presupposed  all  through  the  Bible,  are  sometimes  latent, 
sometimes  come  more  visibly  to  the  surface,  but  are 
always  there ;  and  to  them  every  word  in  the  Bible  has 
reference,  plain  or  figured  ? 

Now,  the  Bible  does  not  and  cannot  tell  us  itself,  in 
black  and  white,  what  is  the  right  construction  to  put 
upon  it ;  we  have  to  make  this  out.  And  the  only  possible 
way  to  make  it  out, — for  the  dogmatists  to  make  out 
their  construction,  or  for  us  to  make  out  ours, — is  by 
reason  and  experience.     *  Even  such  as  are  readiest,'  says 


336  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Hooker  very  well,  '  to  cite  for  one  thing  five  hundred 
sentences  of  Scripture,  what  warrant  have  they  that  any 
one  of  them  doth  mean  the  thing  for  which  it  is  alleged  ? ' 
They  can  have  none,  he  replies,  but  reasoning  and  col- 
lection ;  and  to  the  same  effect  Butler  says  of  reason, 
that  '  it  is  indeed  the  only  faculty  we  have  wherewith  to 
judge  concerning  anything^  even  revelation  itself.'  Now 
it  is  simply  from  experience  of  the  human  spirit  and  its 
productions,  from  observing  as  widely  as  we  can  the  man- 
ner in  which  men  have  thought,  their  way  of  using  words 
and  what  they  mean  by  them,  and  from  reasoning  upon 
this  observation  and  experience,  that  we  conclude  the 
construction  theologians  put  upon  the  Bible  to  be  false, 
and  ours  to  be  the  truer  one. 

In  the  first  place,  from  Israel's  master-feeling,  the  feeling 
for  righteousness,  the  predominant  sense  that  men  are,  as 
St.  Paul  says,  '  created  unto  good  works  which  God  hath 
prepared  beforehand  that  we  should  walk  in  them,'  we  col- 
lectthe  origin  of  Israel's  conception  of  God, — of  that  mighty 
not  ourselves  which  more  or  less  engages  all  men's  atten- 
tion,— as  the  Eternal  Power  that  makes  for  righteousjiess. 
This  we  do,  because  the  more  we  come  to  know  how  ideas 
and  terms  arise,  and  what  is  their  character,  the  more  this 
explanation  of  Israel's  use  of  the  word  'God'  seems  the 
true  and  natural  one.     Again,  the  construction  we  put 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND    THE  BIBLE.         337 

uiDon  the  doctrine  and  work  of  Jesus  is  collected  in  the 
same  way.  From  the  data  we  have,  and  from  comparison 
of  these  data  with  what  we  have  besides  of  the  history  of 
ideas  and  expressions,  this  construction  seems  to  us  the 
true  and  natural  one.  The  Gospel-narratives  are  just  that 
sort  of  account  of  such  a  work  and  teaching  as  the  work 
and  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  our  construc- 
tion of  it,  was,  which  would  naturally  have  been  given  by 
devoted  followers  who  did  not  fully  understand  it.  And 
understand  it  fully  they  then  could  not,  it  was  so  very 
new,  great,  and  profound  ;  only  time  gradually  brings  its 
lines  out  more  clear. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  theologians'  notion  of  dogmas 
presupposed  in  the  Bible,  and  of  a  constant  latent  refer- 
ence to  them,  we  reject,  because  experience  is  against  it. 
The  more  we  know  of  the  history  of  ideas  and  expres- 
sions, the  more  we  are  convinced  that  this  account  is  not 
and  cannot  be  the  true  one ;  that  the  theologians  have 
credited  the  Bible  with  this  presupposition  of  dogmas  and 
this  constant  latent  reference  to  them,  but  that  they  are 
not  really  there.  '  The  Fathers  recognised^'  says  Dr.  New- 
man, '  a  certain  truth  lying  hid  under  the  tenor  of  the 
sacred  text  as  a  whole,  and  showing  itself  more  or  less  in 
this  verse  or  that,  as  it  might  be.  The  Fathers  might 
have  traditionary  informatio7i  of  the  general  drift  of  the 


338  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

inspired  text  which  we  have  not.'  Bom  into  the  world 
twenty  years  later,  and  touched  with  the  breath  of  the 
'  Zeit-Geist,'  how  would  this  exquisite  and  delicate  genius 
have  been  himself  the  first  to  feel  the  unsoundness  of  all 
this  !  that  we  have  heard  the  like  about  other  books 
before,  and  that  it  always  turns  out  to  be  not  so,  that  the 
right  interpretation  of  a  document,  such  as  the  Bible, 
is  not  in  this  fashion.  Homer's  poetry  was  the  Bible  of 
the  Greeks,  however  strange  a  one ;  and  just  in  the  same 
way  there  grew  up  the  notion  of  a  mystical  and  inner 
sense  in  the  poetry  of  Homer,  underlpng  the  apparent 
sense,  but  brought  to  light  by  the  commentators;  per- 
haps, even,  they  might  have  traditionary  information  of 
the  drift  of  the  Homeric  poetry  which  we  have  not ; — who 
knows?  But,  once  for  all,  as  our  literary  experience 
widens,  this  notion  of  a  secret  sense  in  Homer  proves 
to  be  a  mere  dream.  So,  too,  is  the  notion  of  a  secret 
sense  in  the  Bible,  and  of  the  Fathers'  disengagement  of  it. 
Demonstration  in  these  matters  is  impossible ;  it  is  a 
maintainable  thesis  that  the  allegorising  of  the  Fathers 
is  right,  and  that  this  is  the  true  sense  of  the  Bible.  It 
is  a  maintainable  thesis  that  the  theological  dogmas  of 
the  Trinit}-,  the  Incarnation,  and  the  Atonement,  underlie 
the  whole  Bible.  It  is  a  maintainable  thesis,  on  the 
other  hand,  that   Jesus  was   himself  immersed   in  the 


OUR  'MASSES'  AND   THE  BIBLE.        339 


Abe7'glauhe  of  his  nation  and  time,  and  that  his  disciples 
have  reported  him  with  absolute  fidelity ;  in  this  case  we 
should  have,  in  our  estimate  of  Jesus,  to  make  deduc- 
tions for  his  Abergiaiibe,  and  to  admire  him  for  the  in- 
sight he  displayed  in  spite  of  it.  This  thesis,  we  repeat, 
or  that  thesis,  or  another  thesis,  is  maiutainahle^  as  to  the 
construction  to  be  put  on  such  a  document  as  the 
Bible.  Absolute  demonstration  is  impossible,  and  the 
only  question  is  :  Does  experience,  as  it  widens  and 
deepens,  make  for  this  or  that  thesis,  or  make  against  it? 
And  the  great  thing  against  any  such  thesis  as  either  of  the 
two  we  have  just  mentioned  is,  that  the  more  we  know  of 
the  history  of  the  human  spirit  and  its  deliverances,  the 
more  we  have  reason  to  think  such  a  thesis  improbable, 
and  it  loses  hold  on  our  assent  more  and  more.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  great  thing,  as  we  believe,  in  favour  ot 
such  a  construction  as  we  put  upon  the  Bible  is,  that 
experience,  as  it  increases,  constantly  confirms  it ;  and 
that,  though  it  cannot  comviand  assent,  it  will  be  found 
to  win  assent  more  and  more. 


340  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


CHAPTER   XL 

THE   TRUE   GREATNESS    OF   THE    OLD    TESTAMENT. 

Win  asseijt  in  the  end  the  new  construction  will,  but  not 
at  once  ;  and  there  will  be  a  passage-time  of  confusion 
first.  It  is  not  for  nothing,  as  we  have  said,  that  people 
take  short  cuts  and  tell  themselves  fairy -tales,  because  the 
immense  scale  of  the  history  of  '  bringing  in  everlasting 
righteousness '  is  too  much  for  their  narrow  minds.  It  is 
not  for  nothing  ;  they J>ay  for  it.  It  is  not  for  nothing  that 
they  found  religion  on  prediction  and  miracle,  guarantee 
it  by  supernatural  interventions  and  the  coming  of  the  Son 
of  Man  in  the  clouds,  consummate  it  by  a  banquet  with 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  a  city  shining  with  gold 
and  precious  stones.  They  are  like  people  who  have 
fed  their  minds  on  novels  or  their  stomachs  on  opium ; 
the  reality  of  things  is  flat  and  insipid'  to  them,  although  it 
is  in  truth  far  grander  than  the  phantasmagorical  world  of 
novels  and  opium.  But  it  is  long  before  the  novel-reader 
or  the  opium-eater  can  rid  himself  of  his  bad  habits,  and 


GREATNESS  OF  OLD   TESTAMENT.      341 

brace  his  nerves,  and  recover  the  tone  of  his  mind  enough 
to  see  it.  Distress  and  despair  at  the  loss  of  his  accus- 
tomed stimulant  are  his  first  sensations. 

Miracles,  the  mainstay  of  popular  religion,  are  touched 
by  Ithuriel's  spear.  They  are  beginning  to  dissolve ;  but 
what  are  we  to  expect  during  the  process  ?  Probably, 
amongst  many  religious  people,  vehement  efforts  at  reac- 
tion, a  recrudescence  of  superstition  ;  the  passionate  re- 
solve to  keep  hold  on  what  is  slipping  away  from  them  by 
giving  up  more  and  more  the  use  of  reason  in  religion,  and 
by  resting  more  and  more  on  authority.  The  Church  of 
Rome  is  the  great  upholder  of  authority  as  against  reason 
in  religion ;  and  it  will  be  strange  if  in  the  coming  time  of 
transition  the  Church  of  Rome  does  not  gain. 

But  for  many  more  than  those  whom  Rome  attracts, 
there  will  be  an  interval,  between  the  time  when  men  take 
the  religion  of  the  Bible  to  be  a  thaumaturgy  and  the  time 
when  they  perceive  it  to  be  something  different,  in  which 
they  will  be  prone  to  throw  aside  the  religion  of  the  Bible 
altogether  as  a  delusion.  And  this,  again,  will  be  mainly 
the  fault, — if  fault  that  can  be  called  which  was  an  inevitable 
error, — of  the  religious  people  themselves,  who,  from  the 
time  of  the  Apostles  downwards,  have  insisted  upon 
it  that  religion  shall  be  a  thaumaturgy  or  nothing.  For 
very  many,  therefore,  when  it  cannot  be  a  thaumaturgy, 


342  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 


it  will  be  nothing.  And  very  likely  there  will  come  a  day 
when  there  will  be  less  religion  than  even  now ;  for  the 
religion  of  the  Bible  is  so  simple  and  powerful  that  even 
those  who  make  the  Bible  a  thaiimaturgy  get  hold  of  the 
religion,  because  they  read  the  Bible ;  but  if  men  do  not 
read  the  Bible,  they  cannot  get  hold  of  it.  And  then  will 
be  fulfilled  the  saying  of  the  prophet  Amos :  '  Behold,  the 
days  come,  saith  the  Eternal,  that  I  will  send  a  famine  in 
the  land,  not  a  famine  of  bread,  nor  a  thirst  for  water, 
but  of  hearing  the  words  of  the  Eternal ;  and  they  shall 
wander  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  north  even  to  the 
east  they  shall  run  to  and  fro  to  seek  the  word  of  the 
Eternal,  and  shall  not  find  it.' 

Nevertheless,  as  after  this  mournful  prophecy  the  herds- 
man of  Tekoah  goes  on  to  say  :  ''There  shall  yet  not 
the  least  grain  of  Israel  fall  to  the  earth /^  To  the 
Bible  men  will  return ;  and  why  ?  Because  they  cannot 
do  without  it.  Because  happiness  is  our  being's  end 
and  aim,  and  happiness  belongs  to  righteousness,  and 
righteousness  is  revealed  in  the  Bible.  For  this  simple 
reason  men  wiW  return  to  the  Bible,  just  as  a  man  who 
tried  to  give  up  food,  thinking  it  was  a  vain  thing  and 
he  could  do  without  it,  would  return  to  food ;  or  a  man 
who  tried  to  give  up  sleep,  thinking  it  was  a  vain  thing 
and  he  could  do  without  it,  would  return  to  sleep.     Then 


GREATNESS   OF  OLD    TESTAMENT.       343 

there  will  come  a  time  of  reconstruction  ;  and  then,  per- 
haps, will  be  the  moment  for  labours  like  this  essay  of 
ours  to  be  found  useful.  For  though  every  one  must  read 
the  Bible  for  himself,  and  the  perfect  criticism  of  it  is  an 
immense  matter,  and  it  may  be  possible  to  go  much 
beyond  what  we  here  achieve  or  can  achieve,  yet  the 
method  for  reading  the  Bible  we,  as  we  hope  and  believe, 
here  give.  And  though,  in  this  or  that  detail,  the  con- 
struction we  put  upon  the  Bible  may  be  wrong,  yet  the 
main  lines  of  the  construction  will  be  found,  we  hope 
and  believe,  right ;  and  the  reader  who  has  the  main  lines 
may  easily  amend  the  details  for  himself. 

2. 

]Meanwhile  to  popular  Christianity,  from  those  who  can 
see  its  errors,  is  due  an  indulgence  inexhaustible,  except 
where  limits  are  required  to  it  for  the  good  of  religion 
itself.  Two  considerations  make  this  indulgence  right  : 
one  is,  that  the  language  of  the  Bible  being, — which  is  the 
great  point  a  sound  criticism  establishes  against  dogmatic 
theology, — approximate  not  scientific,  in  all  expressions  of 
religious  feeling  approximate  language  is  lawful,  and 
indeed  is  all  we  can  attain  to.  It  cannot  be  adequate, 
more  or  less  proper  it  can  be  ;  but,  in  general,  approxi- 
mate language  consecrated  by  use  and  religious  feeling 


344  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


acquires  therefrom  a  propriety  of  its  own.  That  is  the  first 
consideration.  The  second  is,  that  on  both  the  '  method  ' 
and  the  '  secret '  of  Jesus  popular  Christianity  in  no  con- 
temptible measure  both  can  and  does,  as  we  have  said, 
lay  hold,  in  spite  of  its  inadequate  criticism  of  the  Bible. 
Now,  to  lay  hold  on  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus  is  a 
very  great  thing ;  an  inadequate  criticism  of  the  Bible  is 
a  comparatively  small  one. 

Certainly  this  consideration  should  govern  our  way 
of  regarding  many  things  in  popular  Christianity ; — its 
missions,  for  instance.  The  non-Christian  religions  are 
not  to  the  wise  man  mere  monsters;  he  knows  they 
have  much  good  and  truth  in  them.  He  knows  that 
Mahometanism,  and  Brahminism,  and  Buddhism,  are  not 
what  the  missionaries  call  them  ;  and  he  knows,  too,  how 
really  unfit  the  missionaries  are  to  cope  with  them.  For 
any  one  who  weighs  the  matter  well,  the  missionary  in 
clerical  coat  and  gaiters  whom  one  see  in  wood-cuts 
preaching  to  a  group  of  picturesque  Orientals,  is,  from 
the  inadequacy  of  his  criticism  both  of  his  hearers'  reli- 
gion and  of  his  own,  and  his  signal  misunderstanding  of 
the  very  Volume  he  holds  in  his  hand,  a  hardly  less 
grotesque  object  in  his  intellectual  equipment  for  his 
task  than  in  his  outward  attire.  Yet  every  one  allows 
that  this  strange  figure  carries  something  of  what  is  called 


GREATNESS   OF  OLD    TESTAMENT.       345 

European  civilisation  with  him,  and  a  good  part  of  this 
is  due  to  Christianity.  But  even  the  Christianity  itself 
that  he  preaches,  imbedded  in  a  false  theology  though  it 
be,  cannot  but  contain,  in  a  greater  or  lesser  measure  as 
it  may  happen,  these  three  things : — the  all-importance 
of  righicoiisjiess,  the  method  of  Jesus,  the  secret  of 
Jesus.  No  Christianity  that  is  ever  preached  but  manages 
to  carry  something  of  these  along  with  it. 

And  if  it  carries  them  to  Mahometanism,  they  are 
carried  where  of  the  all-importance  of  righteousness 
there  is  a  knowledge,  but  of  the  method  and  secret  of 
Jesus,  by  which  alone  is  righteousness  possible,  hardly 
any  sense  at  all.  If  it  carries  them  to  Brahminism,  they 
are  carried  where  of  the  all-importance  of  righteousness, 
the  foundation  of  the  whole  matter,  there  is  a  wholly 
insufficient  sense;  and  where  religion  is,  above  all,  the 
metaphysical  conception,  or  metaphysical  play,  so  dear  to 
the  Aryan  genius  and  to  M.  Emile  Burnouf.  If  it  carries 
them  to  Buddhism,  they  are  carried  to  a  religion  to  be 
saluted  with  respect,  indeed ;  for  it  has  not  only  the  sense 
for  righteousness,  it  has,  even,  it  has  the  secret  of  Jesus. 
But  it  employs  the  secret  ill,  because  greatly  wanting  in 
the  method,  because  utterly  wanting  in  the  sweet  reason- 
ableness, the  unerring  balance,  the  epieikeia.  Therefore, 
to  all  whom  it  visits,  the  Christianity  of  our  missions^ 


346  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


inadequate  as  may  be  its  criticism  of  the  Bible,  brings 
what  may  do  them  good.  And  if  it  brings  the  Bible 
itself,  it  brings  what  may  not  only  help  the  good 
preached,  but  may  also  with  time  dissipate  the  erroneous 
criticism  which  accompanies  this  and  impairs  it.  All 
this  is  to  be  said  for  popular  religion  \  and  it  all  makes 
in  favour  of  treating  popular  religion  tenderly,  of  sparing 
it  as  much  as  possible,  of  trusting  to  time  and  indirect 
means  to  transform  it,  rather  than  to  sudden,  violent 
changes. 

3. 

Learned  religion,  however,  the  pseudo-science  of  dog- 
matic theology,  merits  no  such  indulgence.  It  is  a 
separable  accretion,  which  never  had  any  business  to  be 
attached  to  Christianity,  never  did  it  any  good,  and  now 
does  it  great  harm,  and  thickens  an  hundred-fold  the 
religious  confusion  in  which  we  live.  Attempts  to  adopt 
it,  to  put  a  new  sense  into  it,  to  make  it  plausible,  are 
the  most  misspent  labour  in  the  world.  Certainly 
no  religious  reformer  who  tries  it,  or  has  tried  it,  will 
find  his  work  live. 

Nothing  is  more  common,  indeed,  than  for  religious 
writers,  who  have  a  strong  sense  of  the  genuine  and  moral 
side  of  Christianity  and  much  enlarge  on  the  pre-eminence 


GREATNESS  OF  OLD    TESTAMENT.       347 

of  this,  to  put  themselves  right,  as  it  were,  with  dogmatic 
theology,  by  a  passing  sentence  expressing  profound 
belief  in  its  dogmas,  though  in  discussing  them,  it  is 
implied,  there  is  little  profit.  So  Mr.  Erskine  of  Lin- 
lathen,  that  unwearying  and  much-revered  exponent  of 
the  moral  side  of  the  Bible  :  '  It  seems  difficult,'  he  says, 
'  to  conceive  that  any  man  should  read  through  the  New 
Testament  candidly  and  attentively,  without  being  con- 
vinced that  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  essential  to  and 
implied  in  every  part  of  the  system.'  Even  already  many 
readers  of  Mr.  Erskine  feel,  when  they  come  across  such 
a  sentence  as  that,  as  if  they  had  suddenly  taken  gravel  or 
sand  into  their  mouth.  Twenty  years  hence  this  feeling 
will  be  far  stronger ;  the  reader  will  drop  the  book,  saying 
that  certainly  it  can  avail  him  nothing.  So,  also,  Bunsen 
was  fond  of  maintaining,  putting  some  peculiar  meaning 
of  his  own  into  the  words,  that  the  whole  of  Christianity 
was  in  the  Lutheran  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith. 
Thus,  too,  the  Bishop  of  Exeter  chooses  to  say  that  his 
main  objection  to  keeping  the  Athanasian  Creed  is,  that 
it  endangers  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which  is  so 
important.  Mr.  Maurice,  again,  that  pure  and  devout 
spirit, — of  v/hom,  however,  the  truth  must  at  last  be 
told,  that  in  theology  he  passed  his  life  beating  the 
bush  with  deep  emotion,  and  never  starting  the  hare, — 


348  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


Mr.  Maurice  declared  that  by  reading  between  the  Hnes 
he  saw  in  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  the  Athanasian 
Creed  the  altogether  perfect  expression  of  the  Christian 
faith. 

But  all  this  is  mischievous  as  well  as  vain.  It  is  vain, 
because  it  is  meant  to  conciliate  the  so-called  orthodox, 
and  it  does  not  conciliate  them.  Of  his  attachment  to 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  tne  Bishop  of  Exeter  may 
make  what  protestations  he  will,  Archdeacon  Denison 
will'  still  smell  a  rat  in  them ;  and  the  time  has  passed 
when  Bunsen's  Evangelical  phrases  could  fascinate  the 
Evangelicals,  Such  language,  however,  does  also  actual 
harm,  because  it  proceeds  from  a  misunderstanding  and 
prolongs  it.  For  it  may  be  well  to  read  between  the 
lines  of  a  man  labouring  with  an  experience  he  cannot 
utter ;  but  to  read  between  the  lines  of  a  notion-work  is 
absurd,  for  it  is  of  the  essence  of  a  notion-work  not  to 
need  it.  And  the  Athanasian  Creed  is  a  notion-work, 
of  which  the  fault  is  that  its  basis  is  a  chimsera.  It  is  an 
application  of  the  forms  of  Greek  logic  to  a  chimaera, 
its  own  notion  of  the  Trinity,  a  notion  unestabhshed, 
not  resting  on  observation  and  experience,  but  assumed 
to  be  given  in  Scripture,  yet  not  really  given  there. 
Indeed  the  very  expression,  the  Ti'inity,  jars  with  the 
whole   idea   and  character    of  Bible-religion ;    but,  lest 


GREATNESS  OF   OLD   TESTAMENT.      349 


the  Unitarian  should  be  unduly  elated  at  hearing  this, 
let  us  hasten  to  add  that  so  too,  and  just  as  much,  does 
the  expression,  a  great  Fcrso?ial  First  Cause. 

Learned  pseudo-science  applied  to  the  data  of  the 
Bible  is  best  called  plainly  what  it  is, — utter  blunder; 
criticism  of  the  same  order,  and  of  which  the  futility 
will  one  day  be  just  as  visible,  as  that  criticism  about  the 
two  swords  which  some  way  back  we  quoted.  To  try  to 
tinker  such  criticism  only  makes  matters  worse ;  the  best 
way  is  to  throw  it  aside  altogether,  and  forget  it  as  fast  as 
possible.  This  is  what  the  good  of  religion  demands, 
and  what  all  the  enemies  of  religion  would  most  deprecate. 
The  hour  for  softening  down,  and  explaining  away,  is 
passed ;  the  whole  false  notion-work  has  to  go.  Mild 
defences  of  it  leave  on  the  mind  a  sense  of  the 
defender's  hopeless  inability  to  perceive  our  actual  situa- 
tion ;  violent  defences,  such  as  Archdeacon  Denison's, 
read,  alas  !  only  like  *  a  tale  told  by  an  idiot^  full  of  sound 
wid  fury,  signifying  nothing' 

4- 

But  the  great  work  to  be  done  for  the  better  time 

which  will  arrive,  and  for  the  time  of  transition  which  will 

precede  it,  is  not  a  work  of  destruction,  but  to  show  that 

the  truth  is  really,  as  it  is,  incomparably  higher,  grander, 


350  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

more  wide  and  deep-reaching,  than  the  Ahe?'glaube  and 
false  science  which  it  displaces. 

The  propounders  of  'The  great  Personal  First 
Cause,  who  thinks  and  loves,'  are  too  modest  when 
they  sometimes  say,  taking  their  lesson  from  the  Bible, 
that,  after  all,  man  can  know  next  to  nothing  of  the 
Divine  nature.  They  do  themselves  signal  injustice ; 
they  themselves  know  a  great  deal,  far  too  much. 
They  know  so  much,  that  they  make  of  God  a  mag- 
nified and  non-natural  man,  a  sort,  as  we  have  said, 
of  infinitely  extended  Lord  Shaftesbury ;  and  when  this 
leads  them  into  difiiiculties,  and  they  think  to  escape 
these  by  saying  that  God's  ways  are  not  man's  ways, 
they  do  not  succeed  in  making  their  God  cease  to 
resemble  a  man,  they  only  make  him  resemble  a  man 
puzzled.  But  the  truth  is,  that  one  may  have  a  great 
respect  for  Lord  Shaftesbur}',  and  yet  be  permitted,  even 
however  much  he  be  magnified,  to  imagine  something 
far  beyond  him.  And  this  is  the  good  of  such  an 
unpretending  definition  of  God  as  ours  :  the  Eternal 
Potaer,  not  ourselves^  that  makes  fo?-  7'ighteoiisness ; — it 
leaves  the  infinite  to  the  imagination,  and  to  the  gradual 
efforts  of  countless  ages  of  men,  slowly  feeling  after  more 
of  it  and  finding  it.  Ages  and  ages  hence,  no  such 
adequate  definition  of  the  infinite  not  ourselves  Avill  yet 
be  possible,  as  any  sciolist  of  a  theologian  w^ill  now  pre- 


GREATNESS   OF  OLD    TESTAMENT.       351 


tend  to  rattle  you  off  in  a  moment.  But  on  one  point  of 
the  operation  of  this  not  ourselves  we  are  clear :  that  it 
makes  for  conduct,  righteousness.  So  far  we  know  God, 
that  he  is  '  the  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness ; '  and 
the  farther  we  go  in  righteousness,  the  more  we  shall 
know  him. 

And  as  this  true  and  authentic  God  of  Israel  is 
far  grander  than  the  God  of  popular  religion,  so  is 
his  real  affirmation  of  himself  in  human  affairs  far 
grander  than  that  poor  machinery  of  prediction  and 
miracle,  by  which  popular  religion  imagines  that  he 
affirms  himself  The  greatness  of  the  scale  on  which 
he  operates  makes  it  hard  for  men  to  follow  him ;  but 
the  greatness  of  the  scale,  too,  makes  the  grandeur  of 
the  operation.  Take  prophecy  and  its  accomplishment. 
As  the  whh'lwind  passeth,  so  is  the  wicJzed  no  more; 
Imt  the  righteous  is  a?z  everlasting  foundation.  And  again  : 
They  shall  call  Jerusalem  the  throne  of  the  Eternal^ 
aftd  all  the  nations  shall  he  gathered  unto  it.  It  is  ob- 
jected that  this  is  not  fulfilled.  But,  'men  are  impatient 
and  for  precipitating  things,'  says  Butler ;  and  Davison, 
whom  on  a  former  occasion  we  quoted  to  differ  from 
him, — Davison,  not  the  least  memorable  of  that  Oriel 
group,  whose  reputation  I,  above  most  people,  am  bound 
to  cherish, — says  with  a  weighty  and  noble  simplicity 
worthy  of  Butler  :  '  Conscience  and  the  present  constitu- 


352  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

tion  of  things  are  not  corresponding  terms;  it  is  con- 
science and  the  issue  of  things  which  go  together.'  It  is 
so;  and  this  is  what  makes  the  spectacle  of  human  affairs 
so  edifying  and  so  subHme.  Give  time  enough  for  the 
experience,  and  experimentally  and  demonstrably  it  is 
true,  that  '  the  path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shining  light  which 
shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.'  Only  the 
limits  for  the  experience  are  wider  than  people  think. 
'  Yet  a  little  while,  and  the  ungodly  shall  be  clean  gone  ! ' 
but  '  a  little  while '  according  to  the  scope  and  working  of 
that  mighty  Power,  to  which  a  thousand  years  are  as  one 
day.  The  world  goes  on,  nations  and  men  arrive  and 
depart,  with  varying  fortune,  as  it  appears,  with  time  and 
chance  happening  unto  all.  Look  a  little  deeper,  and 
you  will  see  that  one  strain  runs  through  it  all :  nations 
and  men,  whoever  is  shipwrecked,  is  shipwrecked  on 
conduct.  It  is  the  God  of  Israel  steadily  and  irresistibly 
asserting  himself ;  the  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness. 

In  this  sense  we  should  read  the  Hebrew  prophets. 
They  did  not  foresee  and  foretell  curious  coincidences, 
but  they  foresaw  and  foretold  this  inevitable  triumph  of 
righteousness.  First,  they  foretold  it  for  all  the  men 
and  nations  of  their  own  day,  and  especially  for  those 
colossal  unrighteous  kingdoms  of  the  heathen  which 
looked  everlasting ;  then,  for  all  time.    '  As  the  whirlwind 


GREATNESS   OF  OLD   TESTAMENT.       353 

passeth,  so  is  the  wicked  no  more ; '  sooner  or  later  it 
is,  it  must  be,  so.  Hebrew  prophecy  is  never  read  aright 
until  it  is  read  in  this  sense,  which  indeed  of  itself  it 
cries  out  for  ;  it  is,  as  Davison,  again,  finely  says,  impa- 
ticnt  for  the  larger  scope.  How  often,  through  the  ages, 
how  often,  even,  by  the  Hebrew  prophets  themselves, 
has  some  immediate  visible  interposition  been  looked 
for  !  '  I  beheld,'  they  make  God  say,  '  and  there  was  no 
man,  and  I  wondered  that  there  was  no  intercessor, 
therefore  mine  own  arm  brought  salvation  unto  me; 
the  day  of  vengeance  is  in  mine  heart,  the  year  of  my 
redeemed  is  come.'  O  long-delaying  arm  of  might,  will 
the  Eternal  never  put  thee  forth,  to  smite  these  who 
go  on  as  if  righteousness  mattered  nothing?  There  is 
no  need ;  they  are  smitten.  Down  they  come,  one  after 
another  ;  Assyiia  falls,  Babylon,  Greece,  Rome ;  they  all 
fall  for  want  of  conduct,  righteousness.  '  The  heathen 
make  much  ado,  and  the  kingdoms  are  moved ;  but  God 
hath  showed  his  voice,  and  the  earth  doth  melt  away.' 
Nay^  but  Judaea  itself,  the  Holy  Land,  the  land  of  God's 
Israel,  falls  too,  and  falls  for  want  of  righteousness. 

Yes,  Israel's  visible  Jerusalem  is  in  ruins ;  and  how 
then  shall  men  '  call  Jerusalem  the  throne  of  the  Eternal, 
and  all  the  nations  shall  be  gathered  unto  it  ? '  But  the 
true  Israel  was   Israel  the  bringer-in*  and  defender  of 

A  A 


354  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


the  idea  of  conduct,  Israel  the  lifter-up  to  the  nations  of 
the  banner  of  righteousness ;  the  true  Jenisaiem  was  the 
city  of  this  ideal  Israel.  And  this  ideal  Israel  could 
not  and  cannot  perish,  so  long  as  his  idea,  righteous- 
ness and  its  necessity,  does  not  perish,  but  prevails. 
Now,  that  it  does  prevail,  the  whole  course  of  the  world 
proves,  and  the  fall  of  the  actual  Israel  is  of  itself  witness. 
Thus,  therefore,  the  ideal  Israel  for  ever  lives  and 
prospers  ;  and  its  city  is  the  city  whereto  all  nations  and 
languages,  after  endless  trials  of  everything  else  except 
conduct,  after  incessantly  attempting  to  do  without 
righteousness  and  faiUng,  are  slowly  but  surely  gathered. 

To  this  Israel  are  the  promises,  and  to  this  Israel  they 
are  fulfilled.  '  The  nation  and  kingdom  that  will  not 
serve  thee  shall  perish,  yea,  those  nations  shall  be 
utterly  wasted.'  It  is  so  ;  since  all  history  is  an  accumula- 
tion of  experiences  that  what  men  and  nations  fall  by  is 
want  of  conduct.  To  call  it  by  this  plain  name  is  often 
not  amiss,  for  the  thing  is  never  more  great  than  when 
it  is  looked  at  in  its  simplicity  and  reality.  Yet  the 
true  name  to  touch  the  soul  is  the  name  Israel  gave  : 
Righteoicsness.  And  to  Israel,  as  the  representative  of  this 
imperishable  and  saving  idea  of  righteousness,  all  the 
piomises  come  true,  and  the  language  of  none  of  them 
is  pitched  too  high.     The  Eternal,  Israel  says  tmly,  is  on 


GREATNESS   OF  OLD   TESTAMENT.      355 

my  side.     'Fear  not,  thou  worm  Jacob,  and  thou  handful 

Israel;   I  will  help  thee,  saith  the  Eternal.     Behold,  I 

have  graven  thee  upon  the  palms  of  my  hands,  thy  walls 

are  continually  before  me.     The    Eternal   hath   chosen 

Zion ;    O  pray  for  the  peace  of  Jerusalem  !  they  shall 

prosper  that  love    thee.     Men  shall  call  Jerusalem  the 

throne  of  the  Eternal^  and  all  the  nations  shall  be  gathered 

unto  it.     And  he  will  destroy  in  this  mountain  the  face 

of  the  covering  cast  over  all  people,  and  the  veil  that 

is  spread  over  all  nations ;  he  will  swallow  up  death  in    Iv^  </j^yi- 

victory.     And  it  shall  be  said  in  that  day  :  Lo,  this  is 

our  God ;  this  is  the   Eternal,  we  have  waited  for  him, 

we  will  be  glad  and  rejoice  in  his  salvation.' 

5- 
And  if  Assyria  and  Babylon  seem  too  remote,  let  us 
look  nearer  home  for  testimonies  to  the  inexhaustible 
grandeur  and  significance  of  the  Old  Testament  revelation, 
according  to  that  construction  which  we  here  put  upon  it. 
Every  educated  man  loves  Greece,  owes  gratitude  to 
Greece.  Greece  was  the  lifter-up  to  the  nations  of  the 
banner  of  art  and  science,  as  Israel  was  the  lifter-up  of 
the  banner  of  righteousness.  Now,  the  world  cannot  do 
without  art  and  science.  And  the  lifter-up  of  the  banner 
of  art  and  science  was  naturally  much    occupied   with 


356  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


them,  and  conduct  was  a  homely  plain  matter;  not 
enough  heed,  therefore,  was  given  by  him  to  conduct. 
But  conduct,  plain  matter  as  it  is,  is  six-eighths  of  life, 
while  art  and  science  are  only  two-eighths.  And  this 
briUiant  Greece  perished  for  lack  of  attention  enough 
to  conduct;  for  want  of  conduct,  steadiness,  character. 
And  there  is  this  difference  between  Greece  and  Judaea  : 
both  were  custodians  of  a  revelation  and  both  perished  ; 
but  Greece  perished  of  (?z'^r-fidelity  to  her  revelation, 
and  Judaea  perished  of  ?/;/<^<fr-fidelity  to  hers.  Nay,  and 
the  victorious  revelation  now,  even  now, — in  this  age 
when  more  of  beauty  and  more  of  knowledge  are  so 
much  needed,  and  knowledge,  at  any  rate,  is  so  highly 
esteemed, — the  revelation  which  rules  the  world  even 
now,  is  not  Greece's  revelation,  but  Judaea's ;  not  the 
pre-eminence  of  art  and  science,  but  the  pre-eminence  of 
righteousness. 

It  reminds  one  of  what  is  recorded  of  Abraham,  before 
the  true  inheritor  of  the  promises,  the  humble  and  homely 
Isaac,  was  born.  Abraham  looked  upon  the  vigorous, 
bold,  brilliant  young  Ishmael,  and  said  appealingly  to 
God  :  '  Oh  that  Ishmael  might  live  before  thee  ! '  But 
it  cannot  be ;  the  promises  are  to  conduct^  conduct  only. 
And  so,  again,  we  behold,  long  after  Greece  has  perished, 
a  brilhant  successor  of  Greece,  the  Renascence,  present 


GREATNESS   OF  OLD    TESTAMENT.       357 

herself  with  high  hopes.     The    preachers   of   righteous- 
ness, blunderers  as  they  often  were,  had  it  all  their  own 
way,  art  and  science  had  been  forgotten,  men's  minds 
had  been  enslaved,  their  bodies   macerated.      But  the 
gloomy,  oppressive  dream  is  now  over  :  '  Let  us  retiwii  to 
Nature  !^     And  all  the  world  salutes  with  pride  and  joy 
the    Renascence,    and    prays    to     Heaven :    '  Oh    that 
Ishmael  might   live    before   thee ! '     Surely   the    future 
belongs  to  this  brilliant  new-comer,  with  his  animating 
maxim  :  Let  us  return  to  Nature.  Ah,  what  pitfalls  are  in 
that  word  Nature!    Let  us  return  to  art  and  science, 
which  are  a  part  of  Nature;  yes.     Let   us   return  to  a 
proper  conception  of  righteousness,  to  a  true  use  of  the 
method   and  secret  of  Jesus,   which  have   been   all  de- 
naturalised;   yes.      But,   'Let  us    return  to  Nature;^ — 
do  you  mean  that  we  are  to  give  full  swing  to  our  in- 
clinations, to  throw  the  reins  on  the  neck  of  our  senses, 
of  those  sirens  whom  Paul  the  Israelite  called  '  the  de- 
ceitful lusts,'  and  of  following  whom  he  said  :  '  Let  no 
man  beguile  you  with  vain  words,  for  because  of  these 
things  Cometh  the  wrath  of  God  upon  the  children  of 
disobedience  '  ?     Do  you  mean  that  conduct  is  not  three- 
fourths  of  life,  and  that  the  secret  of  Jesus  has  no  use  ? 
And  the  Renascence  did  mean  this,  or  half  meant  this ; 
so  disgusted  was  it  with  the  cowled  and  tonsured  Middle 


358  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

Age.  And  it  died  of  it,  this  brilliant  Ishmael  died  of  it ! 
it  died  of  provoking  a  collision  with  the  homely  Isaac, 
righteousness.  On  the  Continent  came  the  Catholic 
re-action ;  in  England,  as  we  have  said  elsewhere,  '  the 
great  middle  class,  the  kernel  of  the  nation,  entered 
the  prison  of  Puritanism,  and  had  the  key  turned  upon 
its  spirit  there  for  two  hundred  years.'  After  too  much 
glorification  of  art,  science,  and  culture,  too  little ;  after 
Rabelais,  George  Fox. 

France,  again,  how  often  and  how  impetuously  for 
France  has  the  prayer  gone  up  to  Heaven  :  '  Oh  that  Ish- 
mael might  live  before  thee  ! '  It  is  not  enough  perceived 
what  it  is  which  gives  France  her  attractiveness  for  every- 
body, her  success,  her  repeated  disasters.  France  is 
Vhomme  sensuel  fjtoyen,  the  average  sensual  man  ;  Paris  is 
the  city  of  rho77ime  sensuel  moyen.  This  has  an  attrac- 
tion for  all  of  us.  We  all  have  in  us  this  hoinme  sensuel^ 
the  man  of  the  '  wishes  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  current 
thoughts ; '  but  we  develope  him  under  checks  and  doubts, 
and  unsystematically  and  often  grossly.  France,  on  the 
other  hand,  developes  him  confidently  and  harmoniously. 
She  makes  the  most  of  him,  because  she  knows  what  she 
is  about  and  keeps  in  a  mean,  as  her  climate  is  in  a  mean, 
and  her  situation.  She  does  not  develope  him  with  mad- 
ness, into  a  monstrosity,  as  the  Italy  of  the  Renascence  did, 


GREATNESS  OF  OLD   TESTAMENT.      359 

she  developes  him  equably  and  systematically ;  and  hence 
she  does  not  shock  people  with  him  but  attracts  them, 
she  names  herself  the  France  of  tact  and  measure,  good 
sense,  logic.  In  a  way,  this  is  true.  As  she  developes 
the  senses,  the  apparent  self,  all  round,  in  good  faith, 
without  misgivings,  without  violence,  she  has  much 
reasonableness  and  clearness  in  all  her  notions  and 
arrangements;  a  sort  of  balance  even  in  conduct;  as  much 
art  and  science,  and  it  is  not  a  little,  as  goes  with  the 
ideal  of  r/iomme  sensiLcl  moyeii.  And  from  her  ideal  of 
the  average  sensual  man  France  has  deduced  her  famous 
gospel  of  the  Rights  of  Man,  which  she  preaches  with 
such  an  infinite  crowing  and  self-admiration.  France  takes 
'  the  wishes  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  current  thoughts  '  for 
a  man's  rights ;  and  human  happiness,  and  the  perfection 
of  society,  she  places  in  everybody's  being  enabled  to 
gratify  these  wishes,  to  get  these  rights,  as  equally  as 
possible  and  as  much  as  possible.  In  Italy,  as  in  ancient 
Greece,  the  satisfying  development  of  this  ideal  of  the 
average  sensual  man  is  broken  by  the  imperious  ideal  of 
art  and  science  disparaging  it ;  in  the  Teutonic  nations, 
by  the  ideal  of  morality  disparaging  it.  Still,  whenever, 
as  often  happens,  the  pursuers  of  these  higher  ideals  are 
a  little  weary  of  them  or  unsuccessful  with  them,  they 
turn  with  a  sort  of  envy  and  admiration  to  the  ideal  set 


36o  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


up  by  France, — so  positive,  intelligible,  and  up  to  a  certain 
point  satisfying.  They  are  inclined  to  try  it  instead  of 
their  own,  although  they  can  never  bring  themselves  to  try 
it  thoroughly,  and  therefore  well.  But  this  explains  the 
great  attraction  France  exercises  upon  the  world.  All  of 
us  feel,  at  some  time  or  other  in  our  lives,  a  hankering 
after  the  French  ideal,  a  disposition  to  try  it.  More 
particularly  is  this  true  of  the  Latin  nations ;  and  there- 
fore everywhere,  among  these  nations,  you  see  the  old 
indigenous  type  of  city  disappearing,  and  the  type 
of  modern  Paris,  the  city  of  Vhomme  sensuel  moyen,  re- 
placing it.  La  Bokhne,  the  ideal,  free,  pleasurable  life  of 
Paris,  is  a  kind  of  Paradise  of  Ishmaels.  And  all 
this  assent  from  every  quarter,  and  the  clearness  and 
apparent  reasonableness  of  their  ideal  besides,  fill  the 
French  with  a  kind  of  ecstatic  faith  in  it,  a  zeal  almost 
fanatical  for  propagating  what  they  call  French  civilisa- 
tion everywhere,  for  establishing  its  predominance,  and 
their  own  predominance  along  with  it,  as  of  the  people 
entrusted  with  an  oracle  so  showy  and  taking.  Ok 
that  Lshmael  might  live  before  thee!  Since  everybody 
has  something  which  conspires  with  this  lshmael,  his 
success,  again  and  again,  seems  to  be  certain  ;  again  and 
again  he  seems  drawing  near  to  a  worldwide  success,  nay, 
to  have  succeeded ; — but  always,  at  this  point,  disaster 


GREATNESS  OF  OLD   TESTAMENT.      361 

overtakes  him,  he  signally  breaks  down.  At  this  crowning 
moment,  when  all  seems  triumphant  with  him,  comes 
what  the  Bible  calls  a  crisis,  or  judgment.  No7v  is  the 
Judgment  of  this  7V07'ld  !  noiv  shall  the  prince  of  this  world 
be  cast  out !  Cast  out  he  is,  and  always  must  be,  be- 
cause his  ideal,  which  is  also  that  of  France,  however 
she  may  have  noble  spirits  who  contend  against  it  and 
seek  a  better,  is  after  all  a  false  one.  Plausible  and 
attractive  as  it  may  be,  the  constitution  of  things  turns 
out  to  be  somehow  or  other  against  it.  And  why? 
Because  the  free  development  of  our  senses  all  round, 
of  our  apparent  self,  has  to  undergo  a  profound  modifica- 
tion from  the  law  of  our  higher  real  self,  the  law  of 
righteousness;  because  he,  whose  ideal  is  the  develop- 
ment of  the  senses  all  round,  serves  the  senses,  is  a 
seji'a?it.  But :  The  serva?it  abideth  not  in  the  house  for 
ever ;  the  son  abideth  for  ever. 

Is  it  possible  to  imagine  grander  testimony  to  the 
truth  of  the  revelation  committed  to  Israel?  What 
miracle  of  making  an  iron  axe-head  float  on  water,  what 
successful  prediction  that  a  thing  should  happen  just  so 
many  years  and  months  and  days  hence,  could  be  really 
half  so  impressive  ? 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


6. 

So  that  the  whole  history  of  the  world  to  this  day  is  in 
truth  one  continual  establishing  of  the  Old  Testament 
revelation  :  '■  O  ye  that  love  the  Eternal,  sec  that  ye  hate  the 
thing  that  is  evil!  to  him  that  ordereth  his  conversation 
right,  shall  be  shown  the  salvation  of  God'  And  whether 
we  consider  this  revelation  in  respect  to  human  affairs  at 
large,  or  in  respect  to  individual  happiness,  in  either 
case  its  importance  is  so  immense,  that  the  people  to 
whom  it  was  given,  and  whose  record  is  in  the  Bible, 
deserve  fully  to  be  singled  out  as  the  Bible  singles  them. 
'Behold,  darkness  doth  cover  the  earth,  and  gross 
darkness  the  nations  ;  but  the  Eternal  shall  arise  upon 
thee,  and  his  glory  shall  be  seen  upon  thee  1 '  For,  while 
other  nations  had  the  misleading  idea  that  this  or  that, 
other  than  righteousness,  is  saving,  and  it  is  not ; 
that  this  or  that,  other  than  conduct,  brings  happiness, 
and  it  does  not ;  Israel  had  the  true  idea  that  righteousness 
is  saving,  that  to  conduct  belongs  happiness. 

Nor  let  it  be  said  that  other  nations,  too,  had  at  least 
something  of  this  idea.  They  had,  but  they  were  not 
possessed  with  it ;  and  to  feel  it  enough  to  make  tlie  world 
feel  it,  it  was  necessary  to  be  possessed  with  it.  It  is  not 
sufficient  to  have  been  visited  by  such  an  idea  at  times,  to 


GREATNESS  OF  OLD    TESTAMENT.      363 

have  had  it  forced  occasionally  on  one's  mind  by  the  teach- 
ing of  experience.  No;  he  that  hath  the  bride  is  the  bride- 
groom; the  idea  belongs  to  him  who  has  most  loved  it. 
Common  prudence  can  say  :  Honesty  is  the  best  policy ; 
morality  can  say  :  To  conduct  belongs  happiness.  But 
Israel  and  the  Bible  are  filled  with  religious  joy,  and  rise 
higher  and  say  :  '  Righteousness  is  salvation  I ' — and  this 
is  what  is  inspiring.  '  I  have  stuck  unto  thy  testimonies. 
Eternal,  what  love  have  I  unto  thy  law  !  all  the  day  lojig 
is  my  study  in  it.  Thy  testimonies  have  I  claimed  as  mine 
heritage  forever^  and  why?  they  are  the  veiyjoy  of  my  heart.' 
This  is  why  the  testimonies  of  righteousness  are  Israel's 
heritage  for  ever,  because  they  were  the  very  joy  of  his 
heart.  Herein  Israel  stood  alone,  the  friend  and  elect 
of  the  Eternal.  '  He  showeth  his  word  unto  Jacob ^  his 
statutes  and  ordinances  unto  Is?'aeL  He  hath  not  dealt 
so  with  any  nation,  neither  have  the  heathen  knowledge 
of  his  laws.' 

Poor  Israel !  poor  ancient  people!  It  was  revealed  to 
thee  that  righteousness  is  salvation ;  the  qitestion,  what 
righteousness  is,  was  thy  stumbling-stone.  Seer  of  the 
vision  of  peace,  that  yet  couldst  not  see  the  things  which 
belong  unto  thy  peace  !  with  that  blindness  thy  solitary 
pre-eminence  ended,  and  the  new  Israel,  made  up  out  of 
all  nations  and  languages,  took  thy  room.    But,  thy  visit- 


364  LITERATURE   AND  DOGMA. 

ation  complete,  thy  temple  in  ruins,  thy  reign  over,  thine 
office  done,  thy  children  dispersed,  thy  teeth  drawn,  thy 
shekels  of  silver  and  gold  plundered,  did  there  yet  stay 
with  thee  any  remembrance  of  thy  primitive  intuition,  sim- 
ple and  sublime,  of  the  Eternal  that  loveth  righteousness  ? 
Perhaps  not ;  the  Talmudists  were  fully  as  well  able  to 
efface  it  as  the  Fathers.  But  if  there  did,  what  punishment 
can  have  been  to  theehke  the  punishment  of  watching  the 
performances  of  the  Aiyan  genius  upon  the  foundation 
which  thou  hadst  given  it  ? — to  behold  this  terrible  and 
triumphant  philosopher,  with  his  monotheistic  idea  and 
his  metaphysical  Trinity, '  neither  confounding  the  Persons 
nor  dividing  the  Substance '  ?  Like  the  torture  to  a  poet 
to  hear  people  laying  down  the  law  about  poetry  who 
have  not  the  sense  what  poetry  is, — a  sense  with  which 
he  was  born !  like  the  affliction  to  a  man  of  science  to 
hear  people  talk  of  things  as  proved,  who  do  not  even 
know  what  constitutes  a  fact !  From  the  Council  of 
Nicaea  down  to  Convocation,  and  the  Bishops  of  Win- 
chester and  Gloucester  '  doing  something '  for  the  God- 
head of  the  Eternal  Son,  what  must  thou  have  had  to 
sufter ! 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.       365 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE   TRUE    GREATNESS    OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

No ;  the  mystery  hidden  from  ages  and  generations,  which 
iione  of  the  rulers  of  this  world  knew,  the  mystery  revealed 
finally  by  Jesus  Christ  and  rejected  by  the  Jews,  was  not 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  nor  anything  speculative  ; 
it  was  the  method  and  the  secret  of  Jesus.  Jesus  did  not 
change  the  object  for  men, — righteousness  ;  he  made  clear 
what  it  was,  and  that  it  was  this  :  his  method  and  his  secret. 

This  was  the  ?nystery,  and  the  Apostles  had  still  the  con- 
sciousness that  it  was.  To  '  learn  Christ,'  to  '  be  taught 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,'  was  not,  with  them,  to  acquire 
certain  tenets  about  One  God  in  Trinity  and  Trinity  in 
Unity ;  it  was,  to  '  be  renewed  in  the  spirit  of  your  mifid, 
and  to  put  on  the  new  man  which  after  God  is  created  in 
righteousfiess  and  true  holiness.^  And  this  exactly  amounts 
to  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus. 

For  Catholic  and  for  Protestant  theology  alike,  this 
consciousness,  which  the   Apostles  had  still  preserved, 


366  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

was  lost.  For  Catholic  and  Protestant  theology  alike, 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  the  mystery  revealed  in  Christ, 
meant  something  totally  different  from  his  method  and 
secret.  But  they  recognised,  and  indeed  the  thing  was 
so  plain  that  they  could  not  well  miss  it,  they  recognised 
that  on  all  Christians  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus  were 
enjoined.  So  to  this  extent  the  method  and  secret  of 
Jesus  were  preaclied  and  had  their  effect  To  this  extent 
true  Christianity  has  been  known,  and  to  the  extent 
before  stated  it  has  been  neglected.  Now,  as  we  say  that 
the  truth  and  grandeur  of  the  Old  Testament  most  comes 
out  experimentally, — that  is,  by  the  whole  course  of  the 
world  establishing  it,  and  confuting  what  is  opposed  to  it, 
— so  it  is  with  Christianity.  Its  grandeur  and  truth  are  far 
most  brought  out  experimentally ;  and  the  thing  is,  to 
make  people  see  this. 

But  there  is  this  difference  between  the  religion  of  the 
Old  Testament  and  Christianity.  Of  the  religion  of  the 
Old  Testament  we  can  pretty  well  see  to  the  end,  we 
can  trace  fully  enough  the  experimental  proof  of  it  in 
history.  But  of  Christianity  the  future  is  as  yet  al- 
most unknown.  For  that  the  world  cannot  get  on  with- 
out righteousness  we  have  the  clear  experience,  and  a 
grand  and  admirable  experience  it  is.  But  what  the 
world  will  become  by  the  thorough  use  of  that  whicli  is 
really  righteousness,  the  method  and  the  secret  and  the 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.     367 


sweet  reasonableness  of  Jesus,  we  have  as  yet  hardly 
any  experience  at  all.  Therefore  we,  who  in  this  essay 
limit  ourselves  to  experience,  shall  speak  here  of  Chris- 
tianity and  its  greatness  very  soberly.  Yet  Christianity 
is  really  all  the  grander  for  that  very  reason  which  makes 
us  speak  about  it  in  this  sober  manner, — that  it  has  such 
an  immense  development  still  before  it,  and  that  it  has 
as  yet  so  little  shown  all  it  contains,  all  it  can  do.  In  ■ 
deed,  that  Christianity  has  already  done  so  much  as  it 
has,  is  a  witness  to  it ;  and  that  it  has  not  yet  done  more, 
is  a  witness  to  it  too.     Let  us  observe  how  this  is  so. 

2. 
Few  things  are  more  melancholy  than  to  observe  Chris- 
tian apologists  taunting  the  Jews  with  the  failure  of  He- 
braism to  fulfil  the  splendid  promises  of  prophecy,  and 
Jewish  apologists  taunting  Christendom  with  the  failure 
of  Christianity  to  fulfil  these.  Neither  has  yet  fulfilled 
them,  or  could  yet  have  fulfilled  them.  Certainly  the 
restoration  by  Cyrus,  the  Second  Temple,  the  Maccabean 
victories,  are  hardly  more  than  the  shadows  of  a  fulfilment 
of  the  magnificent  words  :  '  The  sons  of  them  that 
afflicted  thee  shall  come  bending  unto  thee,  and  all  they 
that  despised  thee  shall  bow  themselves  down  at  the  soles 
of  thy  feet ;  thy  gates  shall  not  be  shut  day  nor  night, 
that  men  may  bring  unto  thee  the  treasures  of  the  Gentiles 


368  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

and  that  their  kings  may  be  brought.'  The  Christianisa- 
tion  of  all  the  leading  nations  of  the  world  is,  it  is  said, 
a  much  better  fulfilment  of  that  promise.  Be  it  so. 
Yet  does  Christendom,  let  us  ask,  offer  more  than  a 
shadow  of  the  fulfilment  of  this  :  '  Violence  shall  no  more 
be  heard  in  thy  land  ;  the  vile  person  shall  no  more  be 
called  liberal,  nor  the  churl  bountiful ;  thy  people  shall 
be  all  righteous  ;  they  shall  all  know  me,  from  the  least 
to  the  greatest ;  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts, 
and  write  it  in  their  hearts ;  the  Eternal  shall  be  thine 
everlasting  light  and  the  days  of  thy  mourning  shall  be 
ended'?  Manifestly  it  does  not;  yet  the  two  promises 
hang  together,  one  of  them  is  not  truly  fulfilled  unless  the 
other  is. 

The  promises  were  made  to  iHghteonsness,  with  all  which 
the  idea  of  righteousness  involves ;  and  it  involves 
Christianity.  They  were  made  on  the  immediate  pros- 
pect of  a  small  triumph  for  righteousness,  the  restoration 
of  the  Jews  after  the  captivity  in  Babylon ;  but  they  are 
not  satisfied  by  that  triumph.  The  prevalence  of  the  pro- 
fession of  Christianity  is  a  larger  triumph  :  yet  in  itself  it 
hardly  satisfies  them  any  better.  What  satisfies  them  is 
the  prevaiHng  of  that  which  righteousness  really  is,  and 
nothing  else  satisfies  them.  Now  Christianity  is  that  which 
righteousness  really  is.     Therefore,   if  something  called 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.     369 

Christianity  prevails,  and  yet  the  promises  are  not 
satisfied,  the  inference  is  that  this  something  is  not 
that  which  righteousness  really  is,  and  therefore  not 
really  Christianity.  And  as  the  course  of  the  world  is 
perpetually  establishing  the  pre-eminence  of  righteous- 
ness, and  confounding  whatever  denies  this  pre-eminence, 
so,  too,  the  course  of  the  world  is  for  ever  establishing 
what  righteousness  really  is, — that  is  to  say,  true  Chris- 
tianity,— and  confounding  whatever  pretends  to  be  true 
Christianity  and  is  not. 

Now,  just  as  the  constitution  of  things  turned  out  to 
be  against  the  great  unrighteous  kingdoms  of  the  heathen 
world,  and  against  all  the  brilliant  Ishmaels  we  have  seen 
since,  so  the  constitution  of  things  turns  out  to  be  against 
all  false  presentations  of  Christianity,  such  as  the  theology 
of  the  Fathers  or  Protestant  theology.  They  do  not  work 
successfully,  they  do  not  reach  the  aim,  they  do  not  bring 
the  world  to  the  fruition  of  the  promises  made  to  righte- 
ousness. And  the  reason  is,  because  they  substitute  for 
what  is  really  righteousness  something  else.  Catholic 
dogma  or  Lutheran  justification  by  faith  they  substitute 
for  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus. 

Nevertheless,  as  all  Christian  Churches  do  recommend 
the  method  and  the  secret  of  Jesus,  though  not  in  the 
right  way  or  in  the  right  eminency,  still  the  world  is  made 

B  B 


LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


acquainted  with  what  righteousness  really  is,  and  the 
doctrine  produces  some  effect,  although  the  full  effect  is 
much  thwarted  and  deadened  by  the  false  way  in  which  the 
doctrine  is  presented.  Still  the  effect  produced  is  great ; 
for  instance,  the  sum  of  individual  happiness  that  has 
been  caused  by  Christianity  is,  anyone  can  see,  enormous. 
But  let  us  take  the  effect  of  Christianity  on  the  world. 
And  if  we  look  at  the  thing  closely,  we  shall  find  that 
its  effect  has  been  this  :  Christianity  has  brought  the 
world,  or  at  any  rate  all  the  leading  part  of  the  world, 
to  regard  righteousness  as  only  the  Jezvs  regarded  it  before 
the  coming  of  Christ.^  The  world  has  accepted,  so  far  as 
profession  goes,  that  original  revelation  made  to  Israel  : 
the  pre-eminence  of  righteousness.  The  infinite  tmth 
and  attractiveness  of  the  method  and  secret  and  cha- 
racter of  Jesus,  however  falsely  surrounded,  have  pre- 
vailed with  the  world  so  far  as  this.  iVnd  this  is  an 
immense  gain,  and  a  signal  witness  to  Christianity.  The 
world  does  homage  to  the  pre-eminence  of  righteousness  ; 
and  here  we  have  one  of  those  fulfilments  of  prophecy 
which  are  so  real  and  so  glorious.  '  Glorious  things 
are  spoken  of  thee,  O  City  of  God  !  I  will  make  men- 
tion of  Rahab  and  Babylon  as  of  them  that  know  me  ! 
behold,  the  Philistines  also,  and  Tyre,  with  the  Ethio- 
pians,— these  were   born  there!    And  of  Zicn  it  shall 


TRUE   GREATNESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.     371 


be  reported  :  This  and  that  man  was  born  in  her  / — and 
the  Mos):  High  shall  stablish  her.  The  Eternal  shall 
count,  when  he  writeth  up  the  people  :  This  man  was 
born  there!'  That  prophecy  is  at  this  present  day- 
abundantly  fulfilled.  The  world's  chief  nations  have  now 
all  come,  we  see,  to  reckon  and  profess  themselves  born 
in  the  religion  of  Zion,  the  city  of  righteousness. 

But  there  remains  the  question :  what  righteousness 
really  is.  The  method  and  secret  and  sweet  reasonable- 
ness of  Jesus.  But  the  world  does  not  see  this  ;  for 
it  puts,  as  righteousness,  something  else  first  and  this 
second.  So  that  here,  too,  as  to  seeing  what  righteous- 
ness really  is,  the  world  now  is  just  in  the  same  position  in 
which  the  Jews,  when  Christ  came,  were.  It  is  often  said  : 
If  Jesus  Christ  came  now,  his  religion  would  be  rejected. 
And  this  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  the  world 
now,  as  the  Jewish  people  formerly,  has  something 
which  thwarts  and  confuses  its  perception  of  what  righte- 
ousness really  is.  It  is  so ;  and  the  thwarting  cause  is 
the  same  now  as  then  : — the  dogmatic  system  current,  the 
so-called  orthodox  theology.  This  prevents  now,  as  it 
did  then,  that  which  righteousness  really  is,  the  method 
and  secret  of  Jesus,  from  being  rightly  received,  from 
operating  fully,  and  from  accomplishing  its  due  effect. 

So  true  is  this,  that  we  have  only  to  look  at  our  own 

L  B  2 


372  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

community  to  see  the  almost  precise  parallel,  so  far  as 
religion  is  concerned,  to  the  state  of  things  presented 
in  Judaea  when  Christ  came.  The  multitudes  are  the 
same  everywhere.  The  chief  priests  and  elders  of  the 
people  and  the  scribes,  are  our  bishops  and  dogmatists, 
with  their  pseudo-science  of  learned  theology  blinding  their 
eyes,  and  always, — whenever  simple  souls  are  disposed  to 
think  that  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus  is  true  religion, 
and  that  the  great  Personal  First  Cause  and  the  Godhead 
■of  the  Eternal  Son  have  nothing  tA  do  with  it, — eager  to 
cry  out :  This  people  that  knoweth  not  the  law  are  cursed ! 
The  Pharisees,  \\dth  their  genuine  concern  for  religion, 
but  total  want  of  perception  of  what  religion  really  is,  and 
by  their  temper,  attitude,  and  aims  doing  their  best  to 
make  religion  impossible,  are  the  Protestant  Dissenters. 
The  Sadducees  are  our  friends  the  philosophical  Liberals, 
who  believe  neither  in  angel  nor  spirit  but  in  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer.  Even  the  Roman  governor  has  his  close  parallel 
in  our  celebrated  aristocracy,  with  its  superficial  good 
sense  and  good  nature,  its  thorough  inaptitude  for  ideas, 
its  profound  helplessness  in  presence  of  all  great 
spiritual  movements.  And  the  result  is,  that  the  splendid 
promises  to  righteousness  made  by  the  Hebrew  prophets, 
claimed  by  the  Jews  as  the  property  of  Judaism,  claimed 
by  us  as  the  property  of  Christianity,  are  almost  as  ludi- 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.     373 

crously  inapplicable   to    our  religious    state  now,  as   to 
theirs  then. 

And  this,  we  say,  is  again  a  signal  witness  to  Chris- 
tianity. Jesus  Christ  came  to  reveal  what  righteousness, 
to  which  the  promises  belong,  really  is ;  and  so  long  as 
this,  though  shown  by  Jesus,  is  not  recognised  by  us,  we 
may  call  ourselves  Christendom  as  much  as  we  please, 
the  true  character  of  a  Christendom  will  be  wanting  to 
us,  because  the  great  promises  of  prophecy  will  be  still 
without  their  fulfilment.  Nothing  will  do,  except  righteous- 
ness j  and  no  other  conception  of  righteousness  will  do, 
except  Christ's  conception  of  it : — his  method zxidi  his  secret. 

3- 

Yes,  the  grandeur  of  Christianity  and  the  imposing 
and  impressive  attestation  of  it,  if  we  could  but  worthily 
bring  the  thing  out,  is  here :  in  that  immense  experi- 
mental proof  of  the  necessity  of  it,  which  the  whole  course 
of  the  world  has  steadily  accumulated,  and  indicates  to  us 
as  still  continuing  and  extending.  Men  will  not  admit 
assumptions,  the  popular  legend  they  call  a  fairy-tale,  the 
metaphysical  demonstrations  do  not  demonstrate,  nothing 
but  experimental  proof  will  go  down ;  and  here  is  an 
experimental  proof  which  never  fails,  and  which  at  the 
same  time  is   infinitely  grander,  by   the  vastness  of  its 


374  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


scale,  the  scope  of  its  duration,  the  gravity  of  its  results, 
than  the  machinery  of  the  popular  fairy-tale.  Walking  on 
the  water,  multiplying  loaves,  raising  corpses,  a  heavenly 
judge  appearing  with  trimipets  in  the  clouds  while  we 
are  yet  alive, — ^what  is  this  compared  to  the  real  expe- 
rience offered  as  witness  to  us  by  Christianity?  It  is 
like  the  difference  between  the  grandeur  of  an  extrava- 
ganza and  the  grandeur  of  the  sea  or  the  sky, — immense 
objects  which  dwarf  us,  but  where  we  are  in  contact  with 
reality,  and  a  reality  of  which  we  can  slowly  trace  the 
laws. 

The  more  we  trace  the  real  law  of  Christianity's  action, 
the  grander  it  will  seem.  Certainly  in  the  Gospels  there 
is  plenty  of  matter  to  call  out  our  feelings,  but  perhaps  this 
has  been  somewhat  over-used  and  mis-used,  applied,  as  it 
has  been,  chiefly  so  as  to  be  subservient  to  what  we  call  the 
fairy-tale  of  the  three  Lord  Shaftesburys, — a  story  which 
we  do  not  deny  to  have,  like  other  products  of  the  popular 
imagination,  its  pathos  and  power,  but  which  we  have  seen 
to  be  no  solid  foundation  to  rest  our  faith  in  the  Bible  on. 
And  perhaps,  too,  we  do  wrong,  and  inevitably  fall  into 
what  is  artificial  and  unnatural,  in  labouring  so  much  to 
produce  in  ourselves  now,  as  the  one  impulse  determining 
us  to  use  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  that  con- 
scious ardent  sensation  of  personal  love  to  him,  which  we 


TRUE  GREATNESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.     375 

find  the  first  generation  of  Christians  feeling  and  profess- 
ing, and  which  was  the  natural  motor  for  those  who  were 
with  him  or  near  him,  and,  so  to  speak,  touched  him  ; 
and  in  making  this  our  first  object.  At  any  rate,  misem- 
ployed as  this  motor  has  often  been,  it  might  be  well  to 
forego  or  at  least  suspend  its  use  for  ourselves  and  others 
for  a  time,  and  to  fix  our  minds  exclusively  on  the 
recommendation  given  to  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus 
by  their  being  triie^  and  by  the  whole  course  of  things 
proving  this. 

Now,  just  as  the  best  recommendation  of  the  oracle 
committed  to  Israel,  Righteousness  is  salvation^  is  found 
in  our  more  and  more  discovering,  in  our  own  history  and 
in  the  whole  history  of  the  world,  that  it  is  so,  so  we  shall 
find  it  to  be  with  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus.  That 
this  is  the  righteousness  which  is  salvation,  that  the 
method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  that  is  to  say,  conscience  and 
self-renouncement,  are  righteousness,  bring  about  the 
kingdom  of  God  or  the  reign  of  righteousness, — this,  which 
is  the  Christian  revelation  and  what  Jesus  came  to  estab- 
lish, is  best  impressed,  for  the  present  at  any  rate,  by 
experiencing  and  showing  again  and  again,  in  ourselves- 
and  in  the  course  of  the  world,  that  it  is  so ;  that  this  is  the 
righteousness  which  is  saving,' and  that  there  is  none  other. 
Let  us  but  well  observe  what  comes,  in  ourselves  or  the 


376  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

world,  of  trying  ciny  other,  of  not  being  convinced  that 
this  is  righteousness,  and  this  only  j  and  we  shall  find 
ourselves  more  and  more,  as  by  irresistible  viewless  hands, 
caught  and  drawn  towards  the  Christian  revelation,  and 
made  to  desire  more  and  more  to  serve  it.  No  proof  can 
be  so  solid  as  this  experimental  proof;  and  none  again, 
can  be  so  grand,  so  fitted  to  fill  us  with  awe,  admiration, 
and  gratitude  ;  so  that  feeling  and  emotion  will  now  well 
come  in  after  it,  though  not  before  it.  For  the  whole 
course  of  human  things  is  really,  according  to  this  ex- 
perience, leading  up  to  the  fulfilment  of  Jesus  Christ's 
promise  to  his  disciples  :  Fear  not,  little  fiock  !  for  it  is 
your  Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  yoit  the  kingdom.  And 
thus  that  comes  after  all  to  be  true,  which  St.  Paul  an- 
nounced prematurely  to  the  first  generation  of  Christians  : 
When  Christ.,  who  is  our  life.,  shall  appear.,  then  shall  yc 
also  appear  with  him  in  glory.  And  the  author  of  the 
Apocalypse,  in  like  manner,  foretold :  The  kingdom  of  the 
wo7'ld  is  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  his  Christ. 
The  kingdom  of  the  Lord  the  world  is  already  become,  by 
its  chief  nations  professing  the  religion  of  righteousness. 
The  kingdom  of  Christ  the  world  will  have  to  become, 
it  is  on  its  way  to  becom.e,  because  the  profession  of 
righteousness,  except  as  Jesus  Christ  interpreted  righteous- 
ness, is  vain.     We  can  see  the  process,  we  are  ourselves 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.     377 


part  of  it,  and  can  in  our  measure  forward  or  keep  back 
its  completion. 

When  the  prophet,  indeed,  says  to  Israel,  on  the  point 
of  being  restored  by  Cyrus :  '  The  nation  and  kingdom  that 
will  7iot  serine  thee  shall  perish  I '  the  promise,  applied 
literally,  fails.  But  extended  to  that  idea  of  righteousness, 
of  which  Israel  was  the  depositary  and  in  which  the  real 
life  of  Israel  lay,  the  promise  is  true,  and  we  can  see  it 
fulfilled.  In  like  manner,  when  the  Apostle  says  to  the 
Corinthians  or  to  the  Colossians,  instructed  that  the 
second  advent  would  come  in  their  own  generation  :  '  We 
must  all  appear  before  the  jiulgment-seat  of  Christ  T — 
'  When  Christ  J  who  is  our  life,  shall  appear,  then  shall  ye 
also  appear  luith  him  in  glojyT  the  promise,  applied  lite- 
rally as  the  Apostle  meant  it  and  his  converts  understood 
it,  fails.  But  divested  of  this  Aberglaube  or  extra-belief, 
it  is  true ;  if  indeed  the  world  can  be  shown, — and  it  can, 
— to  be  moving  necessarily  towards  the  triumph  of  that 
Christ  in  whom  the  Corinthian  and  Colossian  discij^les 
lived,  and  whose  triumph  is  the  triumph  of  all  his  dis- 
ciples also. 

4- 

Let  us  keep  hold  of  this  same  experimental  process  in 
dealing  with  the  promise  of  immortality ;  although  here, 


378  LITERATURE  AND   DOGMA. 


if  anywhere,  Aberglaiibe,  extra-belief,  hope,  anticipation, 
may  well  be  permitted  to  come  in.  Still,  what  we  need 
for  our  foundation  is  not  AherglaiLhe,  but  Glaube ;  not 
extra-belief  in  what  is  beyond  the  range  of  possible  ex- 
perience, but  belief  in  what  can  and  should  be  known  to 
be  true. 

By  what  futilities  the  demonstration  of  our  immortality 
may  be  attempted,  is  to  be  seen  in  Plato's  Phcedo. 
Man's  natural  desire  for  continuance,  however  little  it 
may  be  worth  as  a  scientific  proof  of  our  immortality, 
is  at  least  a  proof  a  thousand  times  stronger  than  any 
such  demonstration.  The  want  of  solidity  in  such 
argument  is  so  palpable,  that  one  scarcely  cares  to 
turn  a  steady  regard  upon  it  at  all.  But  of  the  com- 
mon Christian  conception  of  immortality  the  want  of 
solidity  is  perhaps  most  conclusively  shown  by  the  im- 
possibility of  so  framing  it,  as  that  it  will  at  all  support  a 
steady  regard  turned  upon  it.  In  our  English  popular 
religion,  for  instance,  the  common  conception  of  a  future 
state  of  bliss  is  that  of  the  Vision  of  Mirza  :  '  Persons 
dressed  in  glorious  habits  with  garlands  on  their  heads, 
passing  among  the  trees,  lying  down  by  the  fountains,  or 
resting  on  beds  of  flowers,  amid  a  confused  harmony  of 
singing  birds,  falHng  waters,  human  voices,  and  musical 
instruments.'  Or,  even,  with  many,  it  is  that  of  a  kind  of 
perfected  middle-class  home,  with  labour  ended,  the  table 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.     379 

spread,  goodness  all  around,  the  lost  ones  restored, 
hymnody  incessant.  '  Poor  fragments  all  of  tJiis  lorn  cai'th  I ' 
Keble  might  well  say.  That  this  conception  of  immor- 
tality cannot  possibly  be  true  we  feel,  the  moment  we 
consider  it  seriously ;  and  yet  who  can  devise  any  con- 
ception of  a  future  state  of  bliss  which  shall  bear 
close  examination  better  ? 

.  Here,  again,  it  is  far  best  to  take  what  is  experimentally 
true,  and  nothing  else,  as  our  foundation,  and  afterwards  to 
let  hope  and  aspiration  grow,  if  so  it  may  be,  out  of  this. 
Israel  had  said  :  '  In  the  way  of  righteousness  is  life,  and 
in  the  pathway  thereof  there  is  no  death.'  And  by  a  kind 
of  short  cut  to  the  conclusion  thus  laid  down,  the  Jews 
constructed  their  fairy-tale  of  an  advent,  judgment,  and 
resuiTection,  as  we  find  it  in  the  Book  of  Daniel.  Jesus 
had  said  :  '  If  a  man  keep  my  word,  he  shall  never  see 
death ; '  and  by  a  kind  of  short  cut  to  the  conclusion 
thus  laid  down,  Christians  constructed  their  fairy-tale  of 
the  second  advent,  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  the  New 
Jerusalem.  But  instead  of  fairy-tales,  let  us  begin,  at 
least,  with  certainties. 

And  a  certainty  is  the  sense  oi  life,  of  being  truly  alive, 
which  accompanies  righteousness.  If  this  experimental 
sense  does  not  rise  to  be  stronger  in  us,  does  not  rise  to  the 
sense  of  being  inextinguishable,  that  is  probably  because 
our  experience  of  righteousness  is  really  so  very  small. 


38o  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


Here,  therefore,  we  may  well  permit  ourselves  to  trust 
Jesus,  whose  practice  and  intuition  both  of  them  went,  in 
these  matters,  so  far  deeper  than  ours.  At  any  rate,  we 
have  in  our  experience  this  strong  sense  of  life  from 
righteousness  to  start  with ;  capable  of  being  developed,, 
apparently,  by  progress  in  righteousness  into  something 
immeasurably  stronger.  Here  is  the  true  basis  for  all 
religious  aspiration  after  immortality.  And  it  is  an 
experimental  basis ;  and  therefore,  as  to  grandeur,  it  is 
again,  when  compared  with  the  popular  Aberglaube^ 
grand  with  all  the  superior  grandeur,  on  a  subject  of 
the  highest  seriousness,  of  reality  over  fantasy. 

At  present,  the  fantasy  hides  the  grandeur  of  the 
reality.  But  when  all  the  Aberglauhe  of  the  second 
advent,  with  its  signs  in  the  sky,  sounding  trumpets  and 
opening  graves,  is  cleared  away,  then  and  not  till  then 
will  come  out -the  profound  truth  and  grandeur  of  words 
of  Jesus  like  these  :  '  The  hour  is  coming,  when  they  that 
are  in  the  graves  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of 
Man  ;  and  they  that  hear  shall  live.' 

5- 
Finally,  and  above  all.     As,  for  the  right  inculcation  of 
righteousness,  we  need  the  inspiring  words  of  Israel's  love 
for  it,  that  is,  we  need  the  Bible  ;  so,  for  the  right  incul- 
cation of  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  we  need  the 


TRUE   GREATNESS   OF  CHRISTIANITY.    381 


■epieikcia,  the  sweet  reasonableness,  of  Jesus.  That  is,  in 
other  words  again,  we  need  the  Bible;  for  only  through 
the  Bible-records  of  Jesus  can  we  get  at  his  epieikeia. 
Even  in  these  records,  it  is  and  can  be  presented  but 
imperfectly  ;  but  only  by  reading  and  re-reading  the  Bible 
•can  we  get  at  it  at  all. 

Now,  greatly  as  the  failure,  from  the  stress  laid  upon 
the  pseudo-science  of  Church  dogma,  to  lay  enough  stress 
upon  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  has  kept  Chris- 
tianity back  from  showing  itself  in  its  full  power,  it  is 
probable  that  the  failure  to  apply  to  the  method  and 
secret  of  Jesus,  so  far  as  these  have  at  any  rate  been  used, 
his  sweet  reasonableness  or  epieikeia,  has  kept  it  back 
even  more.  And  the  infinite  of  the  religion  of  Jesus, — 
its  immense  capacity  for  ceaseless  progress  and  farther 
development, — lies  principally,  perhaps,  in  the  line  of 
extricating  more  and  more  his  sweet  reasonableness,  and 
applying  it  to  his  method  and  secret.  For  it  is  obvious 
from  experience  how  much  our  use  of  Christ's  method 
and  secret  requires  to  be  guided  and  governed  by  his 
epieikeia  \  indeed,  without  this,  his  method  and  secret 
seem  often  of  no  use  at  all.  The  Flagellants  imagined 
that  they  were  employing  his  secret ;  and  the  Dissenters, 
with  their  'spirit  of  watchful  jealousy,'  imagine  that  they 
are  employing  his  method.  To  be  sure,  Mr.  Bradlaugh 
imagines  that  the  method  and  the  secret  of  Jesus,  nay, 


3S2  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 


and  Jesus  himself  too.  are  all  baneful,  and  that  the 
sooner  we  get  rid  of  them  all,  the  better.  So  far,  then, 
the  Flagellants  and  the  Dissenters  are  m  advance  of 
Mr.  Bradlaugh  ;  they  value  Christianity,  and  they  profess 
the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus.  But  they  employ  them 
so  ill,  that  one  is  tempted  to  say  they  might  nearly 
as  well  be  without  them.  And  this  is  because  they 
are  wholly  without  his  sweet  reasonableness,  or  epieikeia. 
Now  this  can  only  be  got,  first,  by  knowing  that  it  is  in 
the  Bible,  and  looking  for  it  there;  and  then,  by 
reading  and  re-reading  the  Gospels  continually,  until  we 
catch  something  of  it. 

This,  again,  is  an  experimental  process.  That  the 
epieikeiaoT  sweet  reasonableness  of  Jesus  may  be  brought 
to  govern  our  use  of  his  method  and  secret,  and  that  it 
can  and  will  make  our  use  of  his  method  and  secret 
quite  a  different  thing,  is  proved  by  our  actually  finding 
this  to  be  so  when  we  try.  So  that  the  culmination  of 
Christian  righteousness  in  the  applying,  to  guide  our 
use  of  the  method  and  secret  of  Jesus,  his  sweet  rea- 
sonableness or  cpieikcia,  is  proved  from  experience.  We 
end,  therefore,  as  we  began.  For  the  whole  series  of 
experiences,  of  which  the  survey  is  thus  completed,  rests, 
primarily,  upon  one  fundamental  fact, — itself,  also,  a  fact 
of  experience  :  the  necessity  of  righteousness. 


CONCLUSION,  383 


CONCLUSION. 

But  now,  after  all  we  have  been  saying  of  the  pre- 
eminence of  righteousness,  we  remember  what  we  have 
said  formerly  in  praise  of  culture  and  of  Hellenism,  and 
against  too  much  Hebraism,  too  exclusive  a  pursuit  of  the 
'  one  thing  needful,'  as  people  call  it.  And  we  cannot 
help  wondering  whether  we  shall  not  be  reproached  with 
inconsistency,  and  told  that  we  ought  at  least  to  sing,  as 
the  Greeks  said,  a  palinode;  and  whether  it  may  not 
really  be  so,  and  we  ought.  And,  certainly,  if  we  had  ever 
said  that  Hellenism  was  three-fourths  of  human  life,  and 
conduct  or  righteousness  but  one-fourth,  a  palinode,  as 
well  as  an  unmusical  man  may,  we  would  sing.  But  we 
have  never  said  it.  In  praising  culture,  we  have  never 
denied  that  conduct,  not  culture,  is  three-fourths  of 
human  life. 

Only  it  certainly  appears,  when  the  thing  is  examined, 
that  conduct  comes  to  have  relations  of  a  very  close 
kind  with  culture.     And  the  reason  seems  to  be  given  by 


384  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

some  words  of  our  Bible,  which  though  they  may  not  be 
exactly  the  right  rendering  of  the  original  in  that  place, 
yet  in  themselves  they  explain  the  connexion  of  culture 
with  conduct  very  well.  '  I  have  seen  the  travail,'  says 
the  Preacher,  '  which  God  hath  given  to  the  sons  of  men 
to  be  exercised  in  it ;  he  hath  made  everything  beautiful 
in  his  time  ;  also,  he  hath  set  the  world  in  their  heart.' 
He  hath  set  the  world  in  their  heart  I — that  is  why  art  and 
science,  and  what  we  call  culture,  are  necessary.  They 
may  be  only  one-fourth  of  man's  life,  but  they  are  there, 
^s  well  as  the  three-fourths  which  conduct  occupies.  '  He 
hath  set  the  world  m  their  heart.'  And,  really,  the  reason 
which  we  hence  gather  for  the  close  connexion  between 
culture  and  conduct,  is  so  simple  and  natural  that  we  are 
almost  ashamed  to  give  it ;  but  we  have  offered  so  many 
simple  and  natural  explanations  in  place  of  the  abstruse 
ones  which  are  current,  that  our  hesitation  is  unreasonable. 
Let  us  suggest  then,  that,  having  this  one-fourth  of 
their  nature  concerned  with  art  and  science,  men  cannot 
but  somehow  employ  it.  If  they  think  that  the  three- 
fourths  of  their  nature  concerned  with  conduct  are  the 
whole  of  their  nature,  and  that  this  is  all  they  have  to 
attend  to,  still  the  neglected  one-fourth  is  there,  it  fer- 
ments, it  breaks  wildly  out,  it  employs  itself  all  at  random 
a-nd  amiss.     And  hence,  no  doubt,  our  hymns  and  our 


CONCLUSION.  385 


dogmatic  theology.  Of  our  hymns  we  here  say  nothing  ; 
but  what  is  our  dogmatic  theology,  except  the  mis-attri- 
bution to  the  Bible,— the  Book  of  conduct^ — of  a  science 
and  an  abstmse  metaphysic  which  is  not  there,  because 
our  theologians  have  in  themselves  a  faculty  for  science, 
for  it  makes  one-eighth  of  them  ?  But  they  do  not  employ 
it  on  its  proper  objects ;  so  it  invades  the  Bible,  and 
tries  to  make  the  Bible  what  it  is  not,  and  to  put  into  it 
what  is  not  there.  And  this  prevents  their  attending 
enough  to  what  is  in  the  Bible,  and  makes  them  battle 
for  what  is  not  in  the  Bible,  but  they  have  put  it  there  ; 
— battle  for  it  in  a  manner  clean  contrary,  often,  to  the 
teaching  of  the  Bible.  So  has  arisen,  for  instance,  all  re- 
ligious persecution.  And  thus,  we  say,  has  conduct  itself 
become  impaired. 

So  that  conduct  is  impaired  by  the  want  of  science  and 
culture  ;  and  our  theologians  really  suffer,  not  from  having 
too  much  science,  but  from  having  too  little.  Whereas,  if 
they  had  turned  their  faculty  for  abstruse  reasoning 
towards  the  proper  objects,  and  had  given  themselves, 
besides,  a  wide  and  large  acquaintance  with  the  pro- 
ductions of  the  human  spirit  and  with  men's  way  of 
thinking  and  of  using  words,  then,  on  the  one  hand, 
they  would  not  have  been  tempted  to  mis-employ  on  the 
Bible  their  faculty  for  abstruse  reasoning,  for  they  would 
c  c 


386  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

have  had  plenty  of  other  exercise  for  it ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  they  would  have  escaped  that  literary  inexperience, 
which  now  makes  them  fancy  that  the  Bible-language  is 
scientific,  and  fit  matter  for  the  application  of  their  powers 
of  abstruse  reasoning  to  it,  when  it  is  no  such  thing. 
Then  they  would  have  seen  the  fallacy  of  confounding  the 
obscurity  attaching  to  the  idea  of  God, — that  vast  not  our- 
selves which  transcends  us, — with  the  obscurity  attaching 
to  the  idea  of  their  Trinity,  a  confused  metaphysical  specu- 
lation which  puzzles  us.  The  one,  they  would  have  per- 
ceived, is  the  obscurity  of  the  immeasurable  depth  of  air, 
the  other  is  the  obscurity  of  a  fog.  And  fog,  they  would 
have  known,  has  no  proper  place  in  our  conceptions  of 
God ;  since  whatever  our  minds  can  possess  of  God  they 
know  clearly,  for  no  man,  says  Goethe,  possesses  what  he 
does  not  understand  ;  but  they  can  possess  of  Him  but  a 
very  little.  All  this  our  dogmatic  theologians  would  know, 
if  they  had  had  more  science  and  more  literature.  And 
therefore,  simple  as  the  Bible  and  conduct  are,  still  culture 
seems  to  be  required  for  them, — required  to  prevent  our 
mis-handling  and  sophisticating  them. 

2. 

Culture,  then,  and  Hterature  are  required,  even  in  the 
interest  of  religion  itself,  and  when,  taking  nothing  but 


CONCLUSION.  387 


coiidiid  into  account,  we  make  God,  as  Israel  made 
him,  to  be  simply  and  solely  '-  the  Eternal  Power,  not 
ourselves,  that  makes  for  righteousness.^  But  we  are  not 
to  forget,  that,  grand  as  this  conception  of  God  is,  and 
well  as  it  meets  the  wants  of  far  the  largest  part  of  our 
being,  of  three-fourths  of  it,  yet  there  is  one-fourth  of  our 
being  of  which  it  does  not  strictly  meet  the  wants,  the 
part  which  is  concerned  with  art  and  science;  or,  in 
other  words,  with  beauty  and  exact  knowledge. 

For  the  total  man,  therefore,  the  truer  conception  of 
God  is  as  '  the  Eternal  Power,  not  ourselves,  by  which  all 
things  fulfil  the  law  of  their  being;'  by  which,  therefore, 
we  fulfil  the  law  of  our  being  so  far  as  our  being  is  aesthetic 
and  intellective,  as  well  as  so  far  as  it  is  moral.  And  it  is 
evident,  as  we  have  before  now  remarked,  that  in  this 
wider  sense  God  is  displeased  and  disserved  by  many 
things  which  cannot  be  said,  except  by  putting  a  strain 
upon  words,  to  displease  and  disserve  him  as  the  God 
of  righteousness.  He  is  displeased  and  disserved  by 
men  uttering  such  doggerel  hymns  as  :  Si7jgglo7y,  glory, 
glory  to  the  great  God  Triune!  and:  Out  of  my  stony 
griefs  Bethels  F II  raise  I  and  :  My  Jesus  to  know,  and  feel 
his  blood  flow,  "'tis  life  everlasting,  Uis  heaven  below!  or  by 
the  Bishop  of  Gloucester  uttering  such  pseudo-science  as 
his  ^  blessed  truth  that  the  Godof  tJie  universe  is  a  person.' 
cc  2 


388  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA, 

But  it  would  be  harsh  to  give,  at  present,  this  turn  to 
our  employment  of  the  phrases,  pleasi?ig  God,  displeasing 
God. 

And  yet,  as  man  makes  progress,  we  shall  surely  come 
to  this ;  for,  the  clearer  our  conceptions  in  science  and 
art  become,  the  more  will  they  assimilate  themselves 
to  the  conceptions  of  duty  in  conduct,  will  become 
practically  stringent  like  rules  of  conduct,  and  will  invite 
the  same  sort  of  language  in  dealing  with  them.  And  so 
far  let  us  venture  to  poach  on  M.  Emile  Bumouf's  manor, 
and  to  talk  about  the  Aryan  genius,  as  to  say,  that  the 
love  oi  science,  and  the  energy  and  honesty  in  the  pursuit 
of  science,  in  the  best  of  the  Aryan  races,  do  seem  to 
correspond  in  a  remarkable  way  to  the  love  of  co7iduct, 
and  the  energy  and  honesty  in  the  pursuit  of  conduct,  in 
the  best  of  the  Semitic.  To  treat  science  with  the  same 
kind  of  seriousness  as  conduct,  does  seem,  therefore,  to  be 
a  not  impossible  thing  for  the  Aryan  genius  to  come  to. 

But  for  all  this,  however,  man  is  hardly  yet  ripe.  For 
our  race,  as  we  see  it  now  and  as  ourselves  we  form  a  part 
of  it,  the  true  God  is  and  must  be  pre-eminently  the  God 
of  the  Bible,  the  Eternal  who  makes  for  righteousness, 
from  whom  Jesus  came  forth,  and  whose  Spirit  governs 
the  course  of  humanity.  Only,  we  see  that  even  for 
apprehending  this   God   of    the  Bible   rightly   and  not 


CONCLUSION.  389 


wrongly,  letters^  which  so  many  people  disparage,  and 
what  we  call,  in  general,  culture,  seem  to  be  necessary. 

And  meanwhile,  to  prevent  our  at  all  pluming  ourselves 
on  having  apprehended  what  so  much  baffles  our  dog- 
matic friends  (although  indeed  it  is  not  so  much  we  who 
apprehend  it  as  the  '  Zeit-Geist '  who  discovers  it  to  us), 
what  a  chastening  and  wholesome  reflection  for  us  it  is, 
that  it  is  only  to  our  natural  inferiority  to  these  ingenious 
men  that  we  are  indebted  for  our  advantage  over  them  ! 
For  while  they  were  born  with  talents  for  metaphysical  spe- 
culation and  abstruse  reasoning,  we  are  so  notoriously  defi- 
cient in  everything  of  that  kind,  that  our  adversaries  often 
taunt  us  with  it,  and  have  held  us  up  to  public  ridicule  as 
being  '  without  a  system  of  philosophy  based  on  principles 
interdependent,  subordinate,  and  coherent.'  And  so  we 
were  thrown  on  letters ;  thrown  upon  reading  this  and 
that,— which  anybody  can  do,— and  thus  gradually  getting 
a  notion  of  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  which  enables 
us  (the  'Zeit-Geist'  favouring)  to  correct  in  reading  the 
Bible  some  of  the  mistakes  into  which  men  of  more  meta- 
physical talents  than  literary  experience  have  fallen. 
Cripples  in  like  manner  have  been  known,  now  and 
then,  to  be  cast  by  their  very  infirmity  upon  some  mental 
pursuit  which  has  turned  out  happily  for  them  ;  and  a 
good  fortune  of  this  kind  has  perhaps  been  ours. 


390  LITERATURE  AND  DOGMA. 

But  we  do  not  forget  that  this  good  fortune  we  owe  to 
our  weakness,  and  that  the  natural  superiority  remains 
with  our  adversaries.  And  some  day,  perhaps,  the  nature 
of  God  may  be  as  well  known  as  the  nature  of  a  cone 
or  a  triangle ;  and  then  the  Bishops  of  Winchester  and 
Gloucester  ^^^[ll  deduce  its  properties  with  success,  and 
make  their  brilHant  logical  play  about  it,— rightly,  instead 
of,  as  now,  wrongly;  and  will  resume  all  their  advantage. 
But  this  will  hardly  be  in  our  time ;  so  that  the  superiority 
of  this  pair  of  distinguished  metaphysicians  will,  never, 
perhaps,  after  all,  be  of  any  real  advantage  to  them,  but 
they  will  be  deluded  and  bemocked  by  it  until  they  die. 


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